


Pathological

by Hermaline75



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/M, Infidelity, M/M, Medical Experimentation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Polyamory, Science, Sibling Incest, Slow Burn, thor centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-22
Updated: 2014-10-15
Packaged: 2018-02-12 22:04:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 53
Words: 58,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2126208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hermaline75/pseuds/Hermaline75
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zombies, vigilante violence and the realisation that you can't save everyone.</p><p>When you're far from home, on a quarantined world, can you have hope? </p><p>Or do you just have to stay alive as best you can?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Read a little too many Marvel Zombies comics. Played a little too much The Last Of Us. And so...this.
> 
> I expect to update a little slower than some of my other fics, maybe once every few days. Especially since I haven't actually finished it yet. I think I know where I'm going, but you never know.

It's amazing how quickly you get over the end of the world.

To be fair, the end of the world had snuck up on them rather. It had started as insurrection and unrest, the usual, expected, _normal_ despite it's horror.

But it didn't take long for the suspicion to dawn that this was not normal. It was breaking out in the most inconguous places and people.

Elementary teachers would turn on their pupils. Small children viciously attacked their parents. The elderly slaughtered their care workers with their arthritic hands and a stength they couldn't possess.

And it was contagious. Attack survivors were taken to hospital, convulsing in agony, only to murder their saviours hours later.

Killers began to eat their victims. Raw.

It was strange and frightening and yet the humans around Thor seemed to know what was happening, even if they didn't believe what they were seeing.

Barton was the first to admit it.

"We have to say it," he mumbled one evening. "Everyone knows what this is. It's zombies. We're dealing with zombies."

He was roundly chastised by the rest of the room.

"Forgive me," Thor said, curious. "I do not know this word."

Stark lowered his voice to an ominous growl. "When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth."

"Zombies, uh... They're the undead. Walking corpses," Darcy said. "Like, people die, but their bodies just keep on trucking and they eat human flesh and anyone they bite becomes one too."

Thor frowned slightly. "I do not know if they are dead, but the consumption and the viral aspect do seem to be what we're dealing with."

"See?" Barton said. "See, Thor agrees with me."

Jane put a hand on Thor's shoulder, comforting, like soothing a child from a nightmare.

"They're not real," she said. "They're just a movie monster. Just a story."

"I was just a story before you met me."

The faces around him told him he'd said the wrong thing. Nerves had been frayed for days. They had all gravitated to the Tower, in the months since this started, drawn there by some force and the sense of safety in numbers. 

Rhodes had moved in with Tony and Pepper early on. Soon enough Bruce arrived, quickly followed by Clint. Steve was all apologies, Natasha made no excuses. Thor and Jane had then decided the move made sense and barely three days later a tearful, frightened Darcy had called, begging to come stay, just for a while. The house was big enough. No one wanted to leave her out there by herself.

They had watched, unable to help as the city began to collapse around them. Even when word of outbreaks reached them, they would arrive to find only bodies. It all happened too fast and there was no system to follow, no organisation. It seemed random.

Most of the cities had been unofficially evacuated. People had fled. The Avengers and associates had remained. It hadn't seemed right to abandon the Tower. And then gradually they stopped going outside altogether.

They knew something was deeply wrong and yet they remained in stoic denial. Thor looked out of the window at the distant plumes of smoke from an urban fire, a sight that had become steadily more common but was now becoming infrequent as fewer people survived.

"We should do something," Steve mumured.

No one had any suggestions.

Jane lay awake later, listening to the emptiness that had replaced the choir of screams and sirens that had previously eminated from the city below. It was becoming clearer and clearer that they were nearly the only ones left.

"Steve's right," she said. "We can't hide up here. We have to do something."

Thor turned to her and stroked her hair.

"How do you kill zombies?" he asked.

Jane laughed, but tinged with desperation.

"You destroy their brains. That's the usual. Burn them. That kind of thing. But it can't be zombies, it can't be. It doesn't make sense."

"Why not?"

"Because zombies don't make sense scientifically. The dead don't come back, Thor. They just don't. And even if they did, they wouldn't have operational cardiovascular or digestive systems, so they wouldn't be able to move. It makes no sense."

"These...people do eat their kills. They eat. They may get some nourishment from it."

"Perhaps. But then they're not dead."

Thor rolled to face the ceiling. "All right. They're not dead. But these people all demonstrate a desire for extreme violence. The desire passes to survivors through physical contact. So it's a disease. Some kind of biting disease."

"Like rabies," Jane whispered.

"Maybe."

"There's a vaccination for rabies," she said, thoughtfully.

She was gone by the time Thor woke up, though her side of the bed was still warm. He pulled on his jeans and wandered in search of breakfast but stopped outside the kitchen door upon hearing an argument.

"I'm asking you to consider it," Jane was saying.

"Consider taking someone prisoner? Consider bringing a dangerous person that you think is a carrier of some unknown disease into my home?" Stark was retorting.

"Your lab."

"Yeah, exactly, my home."

She sighed deeply. "It passes like a virus. If we can get some blood samples and try to figure out how it transmits, a little of its pathology, something, we can try to work against it. It's not airborne. I think it's fluid based. It would fit with the biting."

A bang that Thor interpreted as Tony slamming a hand on the countertop. "We are not biologists, Jane. We don't have the equipment for this."

"You have equipment for everything."

There was a brief pause and then the voice of Bruce, quiet but firm. "I notice neither of you are mentioning the ethical issues of human experimentation."

A longer pause before Jane spoke again. "I don't think attempting to cure an illness counts."

"It is generally assumed that the patient gives consent beforehand. These people are not capable of consent. It would be abuse, Jane, I'm sorry."

"But we can't just stay here, hiding away, while the world ends outside. We can't."

He could imagine the look on her face, full of conviction and fervour. He wasn't surprised that Stark relented a little.

"We could get a dead one, I suppose," he said. "People are killing them, there's no respect for the dead now. We could get one, fresh-ish. Perform an autopsy, look for signs of...bacteria, external symptoms, I don't know. Take samples."

"Yes," Jane said, excitedly. "If we can isolate it, we can try to stop it."

General grumbling from Bruce. Thor decided to take this moment to make himself known, opening the door. The three figures inside jumped back from each other as though caught in some heinous act. Thor moved to get coffee, already trying to decide the most efficient way to acquire a body for Jane's purposes.

"You need speed, quiet, and to be inconspicuous," he said, not looking at them, daring them to challenge him for eavesdropping. "It would not be good for an Avenger to be seen taking a body from the streets. Therefore I suggest Steve or myself for the carrying along with Clint as lookout and Natasha for stealth."

Tony coughed uncomfortably. "I don't think I'm comfortable with any of the women going out there," he said. "Not even her."

"Why not? She has proven herself time and again. If you fear for her personal safety, I remind you that the...afflicted do not practise any sexual violence that we have seen."

"The afflicted don't. People in lawless societies do. Then again, now that I think about it, you have to be really stupid to try anything with Romanov..."

"You'll need protection," Jane said, shifting the subject back. "Anyone coming in contact with the specimen will need biohazard gear. And we'll need to have a lab prepared for it, with more security for the autopsy."

"I've got bio labs. I did make weapons, biological was a pretty obvious development zone back in the day."

Bruce coughed. "I don't think I should take part in this. Even with protection, the idea of the Other Guy getting exposed to this... It doesn't bear thinking of."

Thor drained his coffee and poured another cup.

"We agree then," he said, perfectly calm dispute the ripples of excitement that action caused to flow through him. "We will explain this plan to the others and begin our attempts at understanding this new challenge."

Barton thought they were mad and told them so. Natasha took sides with Jane, saying that any plan was better than nothing at this point. The house split briefly into two camps, for and against. Eventually it was decided that once necessary safety measures had been demonstrated, the four-person raiding party would leave in the night and attempt to recover a corpse.

How difficult could it be?


	2. Chapter 2

Barton grumbled as he examined the biolabs, all glass for observation from outside. The hazard suits would aid with anonymity in the unlikely event that any survivors saw them. The government was already being blamed; a few additional stories of mysterious vanishing corpses would only lead suspicion further away. Still, it would be prudent to remain completely unseen.

He grumbled as he slipped into his hazard suit, complaining that the gloves made it impossible for him to use his bow. Natasha chastised him. After all, hadn't he been complaining and itching to get out only a few days ago? And once a body was found, they could come back and not worry about it anymore.

They left under cover of darkness, Natasha slipping silently from shadow to shadow and beckoning when she had confirmed the route clear. Thor concentrated on making his footsteps silent. He felt very large and ungainly. Two spies and a veteran of undercover war operations were his companions, a far cry from Thor's experience of the bloody battlefield with its screams and multitudes.

The deserted streets were eerie. Occasional lights flickered in apartment blocks, slogans daubed on walls hailed the apocalypse and gave directions for attacking the afflicted. Usually busy thoroughfares were empty. 

He supposed he ought to be grateful for the quiet as they moved further away from the comforting glow of the Tower. Instead he felt as though he was walking deeper and deeper into a crypt.

"Do we even know what makes the... Them different from regular corpses?" Clint asked in hushed tones.

"No bite marks?" Steve suggested.

Thor shivered. He had seen many things in his time, many monsters. This creeping dread was like nothing he'd ever had to face and it made his stomach churn.

Natasha pointed silently. Half hidden by one of the piles of garbage that sat on every street corner, a pair of legs, bent completely out of shape. It was a possible candidate.

Thor fought the urge to vomit as he and Steve half-dragged, half-excavated the corpse. Its legs were indeed broken. It seemed to be male; the torso was mostly intact. The head, however, had been destroyed beyond the point of recognition by some kind of blunt object.

"I don't like it," Steve said. "A person did this. A civilian. For their own safety, they had to do this. We're meant to deal with this for them."

Thor slung the body over his shoulder. He felt responsible somehow, since it was Jane who wanted it.

"If they are doing this, they are surviving," he said.

They returned to the Tower in silence. Their covert mission still felt off somehow.

Jane was almost quivering with excitement, however. She was already dressed in a hazard suit and brought out a bodybag for transportation of the corpse. Thor and the others dutifully reported for cleansing, minimizing the risk of carrying infection into their home.

He showered afterwards as well, out of habit. The fact that water still flowed confirmed the plumbing in the city was still operational. When the lights went out in the streets beyond, the self-sufficient building would be the only one with electrictricity. Thor was already thinking about how to block out the windows so as not to attract attention. He was certain that life couldn't continue in this facsimile of normality for long.

Jane was sitting on the edge of their bed when he emerged from the ensuite bathroom, toweling off his hair. She rhythmically clenched and unclenched her hands.

"They told me to go to bed," she said. "They said it was too late to start tonight. But now I'm too excited to sleep..."

He dumped his towel on the floor and crossed the room to sit next to her.

"What do you suggest we do about that?" he asked, running fingers through her hair.

She looked up as though noticing him for the first time before leaning up to kiss him. Thor bent to her as she pushed him back onto the bed.

"Will this aid you?" he asked playfully. "Should I exhaust you?"

"Perhaps not exhaust," she replied, straddling him. "But I'd like the distraction. I just can't wait to have that body beneath my hands..."

"Hmm. I hope you pay a slightly different attention to me while I am beneath you..."

She giggled, the first time such a sound had passed her lips in months. The sound of it made him realise that he would gladly gather a thousand corpses for her.

He had to think of something slightly more romantic to say though.

Jane arched above him as he moved his hands to her breasts, relishing the way her nipples hardened beneath his attentions. In her shirt and underwear, she was very overdressed next to his nudity and he quickly began divesting her of her clothing.

He rolled them, gently tipping Jane onto her back and shuffling down the bed. She'd shyly told him in the early days of their relationship that no man had ever pleasured her with his mouth. As a result, Thor now took every opportunity to do so.

Jane sighed happily as he slid her underwear down and ran his tongue over her folds. He repeated the dragging action several times before he began softly lapping at her, teasing her flesh mercilessly. Her thighs quivered on either side of his face as he brought a hand up to her entrace, slipping shallowly inside.

By the time he was rubbing her inner walls in earnest, Jane was writhing beneath him and grinding upwards to meet his mouth. It pleased him to reduce her to this moaning state only marginally less than it pleased him to feel her come undone under his attentions. This was now his goal, riding out the undulations of her hips and following her moans until he felt her clench around his fingers and jolt beneath him.

She breathed heavily when he came up to kiss her.

"Do you want to...?" she tried. "With me. Do you want to?"

He assumed a meaning to her broken sentences. 

"Only if you think you can climax again. Otherwise I can look after myself."

In answer, she threw a condom at him from the nightstand. Thor was becoming used to this little safety device and found them ingenius. Fertility on Asgard was far less frequent than it was for humans, though they had a similar spread of diseases. The healers were adept and fixing any embarrassing problems, but Thor remained amazed that his culture had never thought of such a simple barrier.

Jane moaned when he slid into her and began thrusting slowly. She gazed up at him, as though she looked upon the deepest wonders of the universe.

Thor brought a hand down between her legs determined to feel her come a second time. She slammed their mouths together to cover her moans as he slowly drew her closer and closer to the edge.

She was forced to release his lips as she gasped, the ripples of her orgasm flowing through her body, and Thor moaned ay the simulation, pulsing as it dragged him over too.

They lay together for some time before Thor removed the condom, shut out the light and cuddled into a sleeping Jane, as though he could protect her from the horrors outside with his body.

He was glad to have helped her find sleep. She would need it for the following day.


	3. Chapter 3

"Welcome to Autopsy Theatre," Stark's voice echoed through the sound system. "We are your hosts. My name is Anthony Stark and the lady on my left is the divine Dr Jane Foster..."

"Tony, please, I'm recording," Jane said.

"Sorry. Autopsy beginning 10:05am, August 28th. John Doe. Believed to have been infected with... Yeah, something. Stark Tower labratory number six, present are Tony Stark and Jane Foster. On the observation deck we currently have Bruce Banner, Pepper Potts, and Thor...Thor. Oh, and Clinton Francis Barton, arriving late as usual..."

Jane looked very small in her protective clothing. It was tighter than the versions worn by the raiding party and entirely blue. She would have looked like a surgeon if it weren't for the large helmet.

"We're going to start by describing the body as it was brought to us," she said, her voice somehow perfectly calm. "Compound fractures of both tibia, possibly caused by a fall. Bruising... Eh, throughout. Cranium and....surrounding bones are very badly damaged in what we think was a brutal, sustained attack."

"Current theory: someone pushed Johnny out a window and bashed his head in when he'd survived," Tony said.

Pepper shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Her face was pale and sharp. Thor doubted she'd slept much last night.

"You do not have to stay and watch," he said to her. "It is a gruesome sight, I would not blame you for wishing not to look on it."

"I'm fine," she said. "It's just the idea... I don't know if you've seen the reports, but it's awful out there. People are having to murder their families. Whoever did this to him probably knew him, loved him..."

"Don't worry," Clint said, still in his sleepwear. "Thor knows all about murderous family members."

Bruce elbowed him in the ribs but Thor was happy to let it slide. After what Loki had done to him, he felt Clint was allowed a few digs here and there. And it gave him an excuse to think of his brother.

Ridiculously, he found himself glad that Loki wasn't living through this horror.

They watched as Jane and Tony scraped dried blood from under the body's fingernails and took what samples they could from the matted brain tissue. They found traces of red paint embedded there and dutifully placed it in another tube for later analysis.

"First incision, 11:28am. We intend to take samples of stomach acid, bone marrow, skin, blood and other bodily fluids."

They worked steadily, labeling sample tube after sample tube until they had a small glass army surrounding them.

"1:12pm. We are now going to examine the contents of John Doe's stomach itself."

When Jane pulled an unmistakeable human ear from the mass of tissue in front of her, Tony suggested they break for lunch.

No one felt like eating anything. Thor got the impression that they'd all been secretly hoping that the cannibalism claims had been exaggerated. Pepper sat staring at the floor for a few moments before announcing that she felt ill and wanted to have a lie down.

Thor didn't return to the autopsy room after their break. He wandered the Tower aimlessly, trying to judge just how safe they were. So far, no one had tried to enter from outside. He wondered how long that would last. While the building with its power supply and reserves of food was currently a haven, it could all too easily become a tomb.

He found Natasha pinning Darcy on one of the mats in their gym and watched them spar for a while. Darcy had never previously shown any interest in combat, or any part of the exercise equipment and he was curious to see what had prompted this.

Natasha flipped her once again, barely a sweat broken.

"Better," she said. "That was much better."

"It's not fair," Darcy said between pants. "You fight with intelligence, they don't. I don't need tactics, I just need to learn about...you know, weight distribution and stuff. God, I regret not getting fit earlier..."

"If I was going to fight you like them, there would be a lot more biting involved. Come on, once more, then we can shower."

To her credit, Natasha deliberately gave Darcy the upper hand for a short time so that even though her back slammed against the mat for a third time, she went away encouraged.

"You'll get there," Natasha said as she pulled her up. "Remember that I've been doing this all my life. You've got to train."

Thor patted Darcy's sweaty back as she passed him.

"Fight training, I see," he said to Natasha.

She shrugged. "She's scared. Came and asked for self-defence classes. I hope she never has to use it but if it keeps her mind off the imminent end of days..."

"I suppose that is the danger we face. We must keep active or we'll retreat into our heads too much and lose hope."

She patted him companionably on the arm.

"Treadmill battle?"

He grinned. This was their only regular competition. A set amount of time and two treadmills. The runner with the longest 'distance' run by the end was the winner. 

They were surprisingly well matched, despite their vastly differing techniques. Thor ran at a moderate speed but relentlessly, feet falling in a steady, deliberate rhythm. Natasha constantly changed the speed of the belt, alternating bursts of speed with slower, 'rest' sections.

Half an hour of seeing her hair bouncing in his peripheral vision and Thor almost managed to convince himself that nothing was wrong.

Natasha nodded at this observation when he mentioned it afterwards. He'd won, but not by much.

"When stuff gets weird you have to find normal where you can," she said. "You've got to take joy where you find it."

Dinner was a joy, Thor thought. Hungry from science or the gym or whatever else, it was a time when most or all of the Tower inhabitants would gather together and eat.

Discussion of the autopsy was barred while people ate. Rhodey reported on the calls he'd made around the government, trying to find out what was happening beyond their immediate environs.

"It's not great news," he said. "They're doing much as we are, trying to figure out what it is, but they're not getting far."

"Yeah, well, we'll sort it, same as we always do." Tony said.

"In the meantime, basically they're bringing in curfews and quarantines. But it's everywhere, it's all over the planet."

"Where did it come from?" Clint asked. "Have we figured that out? How does a disease get from place to place?"

"Judging from what we know about the length of time between attacks and symptoms appearing, the gestation period seems to be several hours," Jane said thoughtfully. "So someone has it, they don't know, they sneeze next to a businessman who gets on a plane to Europe or wherever... It could have got everywhere before the first case was even reported. And we didn't even realise the first cases were anything other than random violence."

"What a cheerful reflection on our society," Bruce murmured.

"I'm serious though," Clint said. "Where did it come from? Was it a mad scientist's fault? It's always a mad scientist. And monkeys, it's always monkeys."

"No idea," Rhodey said. "They are trying to figure out who patient zero was, see if they can figure out where they might have picked it up from."

"I think you underestimate nature, Clint," Thor said. "Viruses change and mutate. There is always another disease. It's possible there have been carriers for eons and for some external reason, now is the time it has manifested."

"Yeah, well, until you've proven it wasn't science monkeys, I'm going to keep blaming science monkeys..."


	4. Chapter 4

Steve had also been contacting the outside world, new SHIELD mostly. Between him and Rhodey, they began to get a clearer picture than the news was showing them.

Most major cities were steadily emptying as people tried to get away from population centres to more remote areas, safer in their isolation. Satellite images showed ghost towns, although it was thought that this could be misleading as others had barricaded their doors and were hiding from the devastation.

Scattered tents and ramshackle dwellings were being visited by what remained of the armed forces in an attempt to create a refugee camp, though fear of the unknown was prompting people to hide. It would be impossible to be sure they had everyone.

"I was also asked to confirm that this isn't on any of us," Steve said. "A lot of people are thinking like Clint, like it was probably a scientific experiment gone wrong, and we do have three scientists living here known for leaving a little destruction in their wakes. No offence."

Tony nodded proudly, Bruce looked embarrassed and Jane protested that she had _never_ until she was reminded of New Mexico and London.

"The other rumour is that it's not of Earth, but I confirmed that Thor's never seen anything like this and hasn't been off-world in nearly a year, making an Asgardian origin unlikely. But we've been told to be careful. People are scared, suspicious... We are very visible and we are potential targets."

General silence greeted this announcement. Humans themselves had not seemed a threat next to the afflicted. The idea of scapegoating hadn't really occurred to them.

Rhodey discussed food supplies, how convoys were still travelling across the country. In theory they would have food, though rationing was expected to come into play. Electricity was already a luxury. Rain collection was advised in case of plumbing problems.

"Lots of things are unadvised," Rhodey said, checking off an internal list. "Unnecessary travel, travelling with no weapon, exposure, the obvious ones. Over-long showering too. Get clean, get out. Shaving as well, if the water goes we might not be able to spare the liquid. Might want to start growing those beards and cultivating leg hair."

"This is ridiculous," Tony said suddenly. "Have they given up? They just expect society to collapse?"

"The economy is shot, there's panic on the streets, camps are springing up everywhere... Things have changed a lot. I guess up here with our automated food deliveries and self-powered building we are separated from a lot of it. Have any of us actually seen one of...Them? For real and alive, not on the TV?"

Only Clint thought that he had, several months previously, when this was just starting. Even then he wasn't completely sure it hadn't been a violent drunk, running into walls and making awful gutteral noises.

"General stuff like that isn't our thing though, that's police stuff. We start messing around in it and were basically vigilantes. Nah, end of the world, that's our stuff," he said.

"Is it our stuff now?" Thor asked. "Now that it's escalated?" 

He didn't exactly want to face any victims of this disease, but if it was their duty then perhaps he would have to.

"If it's our stuff, we're dealing with it," Tony said. "We're trying to find out about it; safely, sanely, scientifically. Until they're at the door or we need to leave, there's no point in having contact with them. We'd just have to kill them, and that's unpleasant, what with them basically being civilians and all."

Thor mentioned his idea to black out the Tower so as not to attract attention. It seemed like a good notion, even if Tony disliked the idea of switching off the sign.

Clint agreed to help and the next day they set about covering the windows with anything they could find. Paper, sheet metal, black paint; they disconnected the external lights by messing around with the fuse box. Working from the top down, it took them most of the day.

By the time they reached the ground floor, Clint seemed to be considering something.

"How tough do you think this glass is?" he asked, tapping it.

"I don't know. Fairly strong."

"Hmm. I think we should get some of the tables from the boardrooms, take the legs off, and use them as a little extra reinforcement. That way, if they come, at least we'll get the classic hands-through-wood thing."

"The what?"

"Of course, you wouldn't have seen them. After we paint this floor, I'm going to give you a quick zombie genre primer."

"Is that appropriate?" Pepper said, approaching with mugs of coffee.

"Sure it is. It'll give him an idea of how humans think in these situations. Everyone's seen a zombie film or six, even Steve and I know because I showed him one. Everyone knows the clichés and the do's and don't's, 'removing the head or destroying the brain' and all that. It's an important part of our culture."

"Alright. Just don't expect many of the others to join you. I didn't like those films much before all this, I like them less now."

"'They're coming to get you, Barbara...'"

"Stop it. I brought you refreshment and everything. To be fair it was this or more 'Autopsy Theatre'. Or the gym with Natasha and Darcy, or calling the government with Rhodey."

"Where's Steve?"

"I think he's trying to convince a friend of his to come stay. He's talking to someone called Sam."

"Oh, Wilson. Yeah, Nat's talked about him. Sounds like a good guy."

Pepper kept them company while they worked. Thor resisted the urge to ask why she'd answered to Barbara. He was sure it would become clear. Most things did.

Sure enough, an hour or so later, Clint loaded up an entire night's worth of films and he saw the quote for himself. They ranged from terrifying to camp and Thor did appreciate the fact that this was a cultural phenomenon. It explained why everyone was so resistant to the idea of zombies.

He did comment that the creatures on screen moved a lot slower than the real ones. Clint showed him another film which had runners.

"You see? Monkeys. Always." he said. 

"They call them Infected. Is that why no one uses the term?"

"Probably. This was a big hit, big sequel as well, though it wasn't as good if you ask me. It feels fake using infected. I like your word, afflicted, it's close enough but it's not exactly the same. Anyway, 'Shaun of the Dead'. Let's end with some fun. See how many references you get to what we just watched."

Humans had an amazing ability to find humour in the bleakest things. Thor admired that.

Jane was fast asleep by the time he went to bed, all scienced out for the day. She automatically rolled close to him in her sleep. He drifted off, thinking of safer times.


	5. Chapter 5

He woke to Jane getting dressed, throwing on yesterday's clothes.

"We start analysis today," she said excitedly. "The equipment is great, it's all new, I think Tony stole most of it from SHIELD, but yeah, we've altered some of it, changed it up to be better... I think we have a chance, Thor. I really do."

He loved to see her so excited and checked in on the lab once he'd finished reinforcing the lower level windows.

Jane had a sample under a microscope and was frowning at it through her goggles. They had moved to standard safety equipment since everything was now in jars and tubes.

"I don't understand," she said, possibly to herself and possibly to anyone listening. "The blood is normal. I can't find anything in it at all."

"OK," Tony was saying. "Then it's not in the blood. It's in the saliva, we know it's spread through bites."

"We know it's spread through physical contact. We assume bites because there's a lot of biting happening. It's what we expect but... But maybe not."

They worked in silence for a while.

"What have you done with the body?" Thor asked from the observation deck. 

They hadn't realised he was there.

"We put Johnny in the freezer," Tony said. "He needed to cool off. Chill out. Not a food freezer, I hasten to mention. A science freezer."

He watched them work, anxious as Jane became more and more frustrated.

"There's nothing here!" she said, finally. "If I hadn't pulled an ear out of the guy I'd swear he was just a human. Just some dead man."

"OK, then there's something we're not seeing," Tony said, trying absentmindedly to snap his fingers through his gloves. "Let's think this through. You kill them only by destroying the brain, right? Then it's the brain, there's something about the brain."

"None of the samples we managed to recover showed any abnormalities."

"Yeah, but we had mush. Maybe it's only apparent when the brain is intact. Some kind of alteration in the actual tissue, causing these changes."

"So, what, we need to CT scan one of them?"

"Maybe. By the way, the paint? Narrowed down the type to common uses and which fit 'large, blunt object.' I think our boy was fire extinguishered to death."

"Oh. Gross. Do you even have access to an CT scanner?"

"No, but the hospital does. All we need is to find a participant, knock them out, strap them down, break into a hospital, hope their scanner is still in working order, learn how to work it, and boom. Zombie brain scan. Good band name."

Thor noted his bitter tone, how sure he was that this was impossible, and wondered how he could help.

Asgard seemed far and distant, was far and distant. He knew his father had Heimdall watch over him, and evidently they didn't think he was in danger or they would have contacted him, something.

Their continued silence had begun to worry him. He returned to his room, closed the door and faced the ceiling. It felt right to do so, somehow.

"Heimdall. Father. I'm sure you hear me. I assume that you do not speak because hope is not lost. As such I will take your continued absence as a positive sign. I may be about to do something rash and I am sorry. I have to do this. I have to help them."

It wasn't difficult to find the safety suit he had worn previously, or to steal morphine from the medical kit. He snuck out the front door silently. If he was careful, no one would know he was gone. They would all assume he was with one of the others.

He was going to catch a zombie.

He crept through the streets towards the hospital. After all, if they didn't have the necessary equipment, there was no point in putting himself in danger.

The doors of the building had been smashed and he stepped through the broken glass fronts. The empty corridors were eerily dark even during the day. Thor moved cautiously, unsure where to go. The majority of the rooms had been ransacked, evidence of stolen drugs everywhere.

The corpses still lying in their beds were also impossible to ignore. He hoped they'd died peacefully.

A sign at the end of the corridor directed him several floors up to the imaging lab. This part of the hospital was in far better repair, with fewer immediately useful resources to be stolen. He opened the door hopefully and looked at the machine. It didn't seem damaged, but he wasn't completely sure. Really he needed a technician, but he didn't want to bring anyone out here unnecessarily.

Still. The possibility was one step closer. Now he needed to find a subject.

He thought populated areas would have his best chance of finding one and he made his way to a group of apartment blocks, aware of the crushing silence around him.

Nothing. There was no sign of any life. Thor stood between several blocks, among the debris of abandoned homes, stark and strange in the afternoon sun.

He adjusted his gloved grip on Mjölnir and carefully knocked over a garbage can. The sound echoed around him and silence fell again.

A long moment. Then he heard them.

Scrabbling and growling, he heard them coming from within the buildings. The sound of a body slamming dully against a locked door. He braced himself. He was reminded of hunting in his youth, waiting for a pack of animals to attack.

Their faces were drawn and pinched, so thin. They appeared at windows, eyes sunken, skin bruised and scarred, hair thinning. He felt sorry for them.

They seemed unable to get out, trapped by doors and windows. He wondered if they had been deliberately locked away by friends and families.

Thor walked around one of the buildings, looking into apartments as the inhabitants threw themselves towards him, snarling.

Eventually he found a room with only one afflicted. He stepped back and prepared his morphine, hands shaking a little.

He raised Mjölnir and took out the window.

The woman inside lunged at him through the broken glass, slicing her skin.

He retreated, careful not to have his suit damaged.

She demonstrated a strength beyond what her wasted arms should have been capable of. She managed to knock him to the ground and fell on him.

A ridiculous feeling of protectiveness surged through him. He didn't want to hurt her, even now she registered as an innocent in his mind. 

He shoved her onto her stomach, placing the hammer on her back to restrain her. She struggled, making soft whimpering noises and he tried pointlessly to soothe her before jabbing the syringe into her arm.

He watched as her eyes rolled and her struggling ceased before picking her limp body up and carrying her back to the hospital.

Although he thought she would remain in a stupor, he strapped her down on the scanner bed before heading for home as the light began to fade.


	6. Chapter 6

He was excited. He couldn't help it, there was something intoxicating about sneaking back in via the cleansing room as though he hadn't been gone.

Dinner was excruiatingly slow. He just wanted to get Jane alone, tell her what he'd done and help her get the data she needed.

Clint smirked when he dragged her off towards their bedroom. Let him think what he would.

"I have one," he whispered urgently when they were alone.

"What?" she asked, upset from her day of no results.

"An afflicted. I went out, I captured one and I have restrained it in the machine you needed."

Her eyes widened. "You're kidding. That's... That's insane. You went outside and found one? You could have been killed."

"I wore the suit. I was safe. But you can get what you need. Tonight, we can go."

She shook her head. "The others won't let us."

"Who said anything about telling them?"

She blinked twice before grabbing his hands excitedly and standing on tiptoe to kiss him.

They waited until they were certain the building slept before sneaking out in their hazard suits. The empty streets were far more unnerving in the dark and Jane was visibly afraid.

They negociated the hospital with flashlights, Thor being careful not to let her look into any of the rooms and spot their occupants.

His afflicted was still unconscious. He feared that he had overestimated the dose and killed her.

"What did you do to it?" Jane asked.

"Morphine. I stole morphine from the Tower and I used it to subdue her."

"It. Please, I don't want to think of a person. And I meant the cuts..."

"She attacked through a window. The glass damaged her. I mean 'it'."

They wrestled with the machine, but the power in the building was completely out. There was some discussion of trying to find the emergency generator but Thor thought it would take too long.

Instead he closed his eyes and summoned as much lightning from the immediate air as he could. The power buzzed through him as he channeled it into Mjölnir. A little messing with the wires and he had connected the pulsing hammer to them. Lights flickered into life above them.

"It won't last long. Do what you must."

They moved into the neighbouring room and after a few false starts, Jane managed to activate the machine. It hummed slightly. A little more tinkering conquered the printer and Jane triumphantly grasped the scans as though afraid they might vanish.

Thor retrieved Mjölnir and let the static electricity go. A faint rumble of thunder followed as it earthed somewhere else in the city.

They stopped immediately outside the hospital. There was a line of corpses, neatly displayed, that hadn't been there previously.

"Are they... Are they afflicted?" Jane asked.

Thor cautiously examined them. They had been neatly lined up, and each bore the same fatal injury, a deep stab through the back of the neck, twisting upwards towards their brains. Some had broken backs. By their thin faces and battered skin, they were indeed afflicted.

"Someone did this and left them here for us to see," he said, voice full of concern.

"Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe to show dominance. Perhaps we have stumbled into their territory and they want to warn us off. We should get home. As soon as possible.

He wasn't surprised to find Steve waiting for them when they got in. Folded arms, stern baring, he was every inch the concerned parent.

"You want to tell me what the little lightning display was all about? I knew it was you. What were you thinking, going out there? It's not safe."

"We went to scan the brain of one of them. We need it. It's unbelievably important and entirely justified." Jane held her head high.

"You... You went out and captured one? You experimented on it? God, Jane. You do realise that's ethically dubious at best?"

"We need it. I don't care about ethics right now, we need this data and now we have it."

Their raised voices soon woke the others and Thor found himself roundly chastised for having taken so many risks. Jane sided with him, of course. Bruce tentatively, and with a firm mention of his abhorrence for their actions, mentioned that he was glad to have more data to examine.

All in all, Thor felt they had done the right thing. 

In all the arguing, he forgot to talk about the line of bodies displayed outside the hospital. He brought it up the next day over breakfast coffee.

"So there were bodies? Mutilated?" Steve said.

"Yes. Around eight, deliberately left for us. I think someone saw us go into the hospital and laid their kills up for us to find."

Steve frowned. "How long were you in there?"

"Maybe 45 minutes."

"So you think in 45 minutes someone killed eight afflicted and lined them up without you hearing them?"

"They would have to be very fast. I think it's more likely that they had a body cache and brought them out. I think it was just to intimidate us."

"Which means there's someone out there. Someone dangerous. We need to be more careful. People are getting strange and desperate."

Thor had to agree. He couldn't recall if the bodies had seemed recently killed. There had been blood, but the darkness meant he hadn't seen if it was fresh or not.

A human shouldn't have been able to do that. Not a civilian. Even their armed forces would have used a gun, not a blade.

It was unsettling.

"I fear it may be part of a new social system," he said carefully. "Someone who considers the hospital part of their territory and therefore wished us to leave quickly but without violence between survivors."

"It makes sense,"Steve said gravely. "You've been in wars, you know what it's like when people are afraid that resources are getting scarce. Or going to get scarce. But there's a degree of respect for humanity here. It's us against them before us against you."

"I am not human."

A pat on the back. "Yeah, but you're still one of us. But don't think I'm not still mad at you for last night's recklessness. I understand the reasons, but...taking Jane out there? She's not a fighter, if a group of them had attacked..."

"I would have killed them."

"Easier said than done, I think. They're not like an army or an intelligent force, they're mindless and unpredictable. You've seen the footage."

"But they can be killed. Whoever followed Jane and I is successfully killing them with blades, necessitating close proximity to them. Perhaps with the right protection we could..." he looked away, remembering the sad sounds of the afflicted woman as she struggled under Mjölnir.

Steve stood up. 

"We should see if the science team have figured anything out yet."


	7. Chapter 7

Jane was sitting with a large medical textbook open in front of her, comparing slice after slice of brain scan. Tony was elsewhere, checking on their power supply and making sure the building was running smoothly.

"Anything yet?" Steve asked, voice cheerful despite his worried expression.

"Not sure, maybe. I was reading about brain inflammation, wondering if this could be some kind of encelphilitus. A simple infection makes the brain swell and it can cause blackouts and changes in behaviour. I think we might have to get out our blood samples again. I was looking for infection, I didn't think about looking for hormonal imbalances. There is something in this scan that isn't normal. It looks like there are... I don't know, gaps. Something missing."

"Missing? Parts of the brain missing? How could that even happen?"

"Maybe shrunken? I'm not sure. I really am guessing here, Steve. Maybe the disease blocks certain blood vessels, cuts off oxygen supply to only certain parts of the brain and they wither. But there was nothing viral in the blood that I could find."

"Could it be a stroke or something? They can cause behavioral changes. Happened to my grandmother."

"Like a blood clot. If something got into the bloodstream and travelled to the brain and got wedged in one of the smaller blood vessels up there... Something I couldn't find in a straight up blood sample..."

"Jane," Thor said. "We cannot follow your thoughts if you don't say them out loud."

She often did this.

"What if it's a parasite? Not a virus or a bacteria but a parasite, like a tapeworm but... It would have to be small, microscopic, it gets into the bloodstream somehow, through the airways or a bite and is carried to the brain, by which time it's... I don't know, begun to grow or it attracts platelets or something and it causes a blockage in part of the brain. And it keeps the host alive, making it infect and devour others."

"The infection I understand, but the cannibalism is still throwing me," Steve said. "The ear wasn't even digested. And surely, if they're digesting, then the uh... We'd have pretty severe sanitation issues."

"I'm not sure they do digest. I think... I think it shuts down a lot of the body's nerve systems. They don't seem to register pain or muscle fatigue. Maybe there's nothing telling the body to digest. One way of communication is open, the body demands food, but it never realises it has eaten..."

"Jane, this is speculation. You're talking like it's possible, but really none of us know that. We're not medical. None of us are."

She waved her arms desperately.

"Thor, what do all the afflicted have? What is physically common to all of them?"

"Um," he said, suddenly on the spot. "They are thin, as though starving. Their eyes are strange, beast-like and sunken. They have bruises everywhere..."

"Exactly. Bruises. Maybe it doesn't just get into the brain, maybe it goes everywhere, blocking capilliaries and causing the bruising we thought was caused by violence. Maybe they only stay in the blood stream so long, the distance between exposure and demonstration of symptoms, so by the time I tested Johnny's blood there was nothing there to find."

Thor watched as she paced the room, gesturing wildly.

"There are these ants," she was continuing. "I saw a documentary once. They get attacked by a parasite that makes them climb to the top of a tree and stay there until they starve and then baby parasites hatch in the ant's brain and eat their way out and then set out to find more ants to infect..."

Clint wandered in for the end of this sentence, shook his head and walked back out complaining about nature being gross.

"So, wait, you think once the afflicted die, baby...whatevers are going to hatch?" Steve asked.

"I don't know. They must be dying since they don't digest their food and they must be dehydrated. Maybe the parasite isn't evolved properly yet. Or it's a mutation, but an evolutionary misstep that infects and infects but can't cause the behaviour it needs to go forward. I don't know, but this is the closest I've come to a workable theory since before we got John."

"OK. Good. Anything we can do?"

"Erm... I'm going to cut up John's arm, so you could tell Tony. And Darcy actually. I think I work better with her to bounce off."

"Cut up his arm? Why?"

"I want to check out some of the bruises, see if I can find any weird blood clots or unexplained stuff in there, not just regular impact evidence."

"Didn't you freeze John?"

"Yeah, but... I can defrost him."

"No using microwaves."

She decided aloud to remove an arm and leave the rest frozen.

Steve smiled vaguely as she exited with a surgical saw in hand.

"Are you ever worried about sleeping next to her?" he asked.

Thor laughed. "She is single-minded when it comes to her research, but outside the lab she is actually one of my more loving bedmates."

"I guess Sif might be pretty intimidating from what I've heard."

He hoped Steve wouldn't notice his momentary hesitation.

"Yes, my Asgardian lovers of all genders were, as you say, intimidating. Comparatively, as long as I support her work, Jane is decidedly mellow."

He went in search of Tony and Darcy to invite them to help with Jane's new idea.

His description of the potential parasite as a tiny ant blood clot intrigued Tony. Darcy was less keen to witness arm disection but Natasha encouraged her to leave the gym for a day or two.

"Your body needs time to recover. And your knuckles are still raw from the punchbag."

Darcy rubbed her hands together absentmindedly and Thor noted the scabs where she'd scraped them against the rough material.

"No one said anything about tape," she grumbled.

"Jane needs you," Thor said. "She works better with you there. You understand how her lab brain works better than anyone."

The flattery helped and she was soon stepping into the observation deck to witness attempted rapid arm defrostation.

Thor and Steve left to her refusing to donate her hair drier to the cause.


	8. Chapter 8

Steve coughed awkwardly as they walked away from the lab.

"How was it, out there?" he asked.

"Outside?" Thor clarified. "It was quiet. Eerie. Most of the afflicted seem contained and they don't react unless something rouses them. When I was quiet I saw no one and I think our murderous friend was only attracted by the hospital lights."

Steve nodded. "Right. Right. So it's not...especially dangerous out there?"

"What are you thinking of doing, Steve?"

He glanced both ways along the deserted corridor. "I want to go out and look for Bucky. I know, it's crazy, but I think he will have survived. And when you said blades, that the afflicted you found had been knifed... He used knives the last time I saw him. And he wouldn't have been evacuated. I'm waiting for Sam to arrive and then I'll talk to him about it, but I want to go into Brooklyn and look for him. What if he went home? A home he barely remembers, he must be so scared..."

Thor hesitated before placing an arm on his shoulder. "You must prepare yourself for disappointment."

"I know. I know but... I figured you, of all people, would know what it's like to find someone again."

They reached one of the kitchens and perched themselves on the high stools at the breakfast bar.

"I understand where you're coming from, of course," Thor said. "I know what it is to chase a ghost. But the last time you saw him was in Washington. I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm but I severely doubt he's here, even if he did survive the outbreak."

"I just... I can't shake the idea that he would come home. That he might be looking for answers, looking for me... The wounds you describe on those bodies and the speed too, it could be him."

"Or not. I will not try to stop you from investigating, but you seek one man in a city of thousands when you cannot say for sure he has been here this century."

"I wasn't asking you not to stop me, I was asking you to come along. You, me and Sam."

"Not Natasha? She has faced him before."

"No offence, but I actually asked her first. She doesn't want to be out there. The afflicted don't think, can't be outwitted because they don't have wits. It doesn't play to her strengths. Keeping an eye on everyone here is more important, she says."

Thor considered his answer. It was true. He did know this urge. When he had learned that Loki had survived his fall from the Bifrost, he had been ready to search the realms themselves.

"It will set your mind at rest to visit your former home?" he asked.

"I think so. I need to know."

Thor sighed. "When will your friend arrive?"

"Either this afternoon or tomorrow. As soon as he can. And then I want to make a start the next day assuming I can convince him."

"Hmm. I will think about it. I imagine I will come. It will be good to go out with comrades again."

"Can I come?" A voice from the doorway. Clint wandered over to the fridge in search of juice. They hadn't even heard him approach.

"Would you want to?" Steve asked.

"Sure. Unless you've already fulfilled your bird of prey quota with the Falcon and all."

"Well, alright. But that's all. I'm not taking Stark. I'm sure he'd handle himself admirably but we're walking and trying not to attract attention, so no reactor beams or jets or anything."

"I can feel the fun starting already. It'll be like a boys' day out. But with zombies and hunting a brain-washed assassin."

It would be fun. Thor found himself concerned that they would find it too much fun and be reckless. Then again, his girlfriend was currently trying to dig parasites out of a mostly frozen arm, so perhaps their chosen recreational activities were relatively normal.

Sam Wilson arrived that evening via the roof. He brought a much-needed freshness to the building, joking and laughing. Even Rhodey and Bruce, who had begun to become steadily more reserved and isolated, stayed up late to hear about the situation in Washington.

It was better than New York, apparently. Some neighbourhoods had gone through quarantine, de-zombification and were now being tentatively repopulated with the inhabitants of the shanty towns surrounding the suburbs. There had been violence, of course, but it seemed to be over now.

"Do you think it will work?" Natasha asked. "The repopulation?"

"Well, the whole city is now under quarantine. Nothing goes in or out without checks. So I guess if it can't get back in, the city should be safe."

"You mean you can't go back."

He looked down the table at her. "I don't need to go back. You guys are here, I might as well live with you than by myself back there. My folks, they uh... Never mind. And it's not like I was doing much. No one to run with."

Steve laughed for the first time in weeks.

They stayed up far too late, telling stories of time long gone. By the time he and Jane fell into bed, exhausted but happy, he was almost feeling the way he had in his youth, swapping tales around the banqueting hall.

He nuzzled Jane's hair and she sighed softly in her sleep. This was what he had now. Jane and friends and Midgard. He had seen too much fall away. What remained was worth fighting for. And it was worth helping Steve search for his friend. What Sam had told them about the attempted repopulation of Washington had given him hope that the humans could survive this. Their society could rebuild, in time. He was sure a cure or treatment could be found too, by Jane or by some other working towards it. They just had to stay alive as a species..

If his mind hadn't been made up before, it was now. They would go to Brooklyn on Steve's wild goose chase the following morning.

The distraction would help with the claustrophobia he suspected was beginning to creep into Clint and Steve. They weren't used to being indoors exclusively and since their first corpse-retrieval mission, he had noticed Clint working harder and harder to keep himself busy. A lack of purpose was beginning to get to all of them a little.

They just had to convince Sam.


	9. Chapter 9

As it turned out, Sam had suspected a plan like this.

"The second you called, I figured you were wanting to chase the Soldier again. And I hope we find him, I really do, but I admit I doubt we will."

Only Clint was positive, until he realised he was going to have to wear a hazard suit again.

"Come on, guys," he complained. "I can't grip anything. I need precise grip and good tactile ability to be at my best."

Eventually it was agreed that he could wear a spare pair of lab gloves. Jane had been wary of them going out during the day at first, but soon she was asking them to observe the behavior of any afflicted they came across. She had found some unexpected clotting in the arm which she would spend the day examining, Darcy holding a plastic tray for her to place possible specimens in with a long-suffering expression. 

Pepper was far less understanding of their plan, thinking they were ridiculous to even consider it. Tony managed to talk her round after a while, saying that they might find other survivors or be able to form an estimation on the clean up required before the city could be rebuilt. To his credit, he seemed to have no desire to come with them. He was occupying himself with making the Tower even more efficient, trying to build recycling machines to lessen their reliance on the outside world even further.

So it was that after lunch, later than Steve had wanted, the four of them set out.

Progress was slow, moving from covered spot to covered spot, still afraid to be out in the open for too long. The air was chilly, even through the hazard suit, though Thor found himself sweating uncomfortably against the thick plastic.

They avoided wrecks of cars, burnt out buildings, piles of refuse and occasional body parts. They all looked away from particularly gruesome examples. It never quite felt detatched enough.

In all, they saw few afflicted. They were locked into the ground floors of buildings, shops and apartments alike. Some threw themselves against glass, others lay twitching, their sunken chests heaving as they slowly died.

Being unable to speak to one another for fear of attracting attention didn't help. A crushing atmosphere fell over their little band, their faces drawn and frightened by suddenly unfamiliar streets.

Steve was visibly hopefully however when he gestured for them down side streets towards a ramshackle collection of buildings.

They climbed fire escapes and peered into windows, trying to assess their safety. Only corpses littered this area. Any afflicted were either left headless in the street or lay in destroyed apartments where they'd fallen.

They followed Steve up to a specific front door, finding the lock had been forced. A general feeling of decay covered everything within, mould growing on most of the soft furnishings and broken knicknacks littering the floor.

He waited a few moments before speaking quietly. 

"This was Bucky's grandmother's house," he said. "She died decades ago, obviously, but... It was pretty much home for him too some of the time."

They searched the rooms carefully. The place had been quite thoroughly ransacked. The bathroom, however, seemed lived in. Moth-eaten blankets lined the bath, empty cans on the floor, evidence of a small fire in a metal basin on the tiles.

"It's him," Steve whispered. "He's been here."

"You don't know that..." Sam said, gently. "Anyone could have holed up here."

"I know it's him," Steve insisted. "I know it."

There was a minor awkward standoff before Clint coughed. "OK, well, I want to get home before dark. We can figure out a secondary plan over dinner to find out whether it's Cap's old buddy or just some guy. OK?"

"I think this would be wise," Thor said.

The necessary silence for the journey home did nothing to relieve the tension settling over them.

The sight of a freshly-killed afflicted on their doorstep did.

Clint automatically scanned the area for possible escape routes. He gestured silently as he found evidence of a scuffle in a nearby alley. The unfortunate afflicted - as though there was any other kind - had been forced to the ground. The blood on the floor and walls was still shining wet.

They traced the way the body had been dragged and tried to figure out where the assailant might have gone.

The vaguest trace of smudged fingerprints on a different wall was their only clue, but even that was tentative at best.

Their silent appraisal of the scene was interrupted by the arrival of Stark from the roof.

"I was about to come looking for you," he said, voice muffled behind a new, more bacteria aware helmet.

Clint pointed behind him to the body.

"Shit. Well. Jane will be pleased. She's been complaining all afternoon that the freezer has messed up her blood clots. Now I guess someone has home-delivered her a new John to play with."

Thor tried to consider this a good thing as he helped carry the body inside, and tried not to focus on the possible assassin at their gate. Whoever it was, Bucky or not, they were close by now and leaving their kills visible, like a cat leaving 'presents'.

Jane certainly seemed to deem it a gift from above. She had to be instructed to eat and to go to bed, despite her protests that every second was vital. 

Thor could tell she was awake, fidgeting beside him.

"You must sleep," he murmured. "You need rest before you can work."

"I know. I can't wind down."

He sleepily ran a hand down her sternum. "Do you want anything? Something to help you relax?"

She let his hand slide lower and lower, over her stomach and underwear.

"Wait," she said. "You're tired, you should sleep, you shouldn't have to deal with me when I'm like this, you're not here just to look after me..."

He shushed her gently and kissed her as he slid his fingers beaneath her clothing, gentle strokes at first but soon moving to fast circles against her sensitive flesh. She took longer to climax from just his hand, but being able to kiss and feel the sharp, desperate imprints of her fingernails in his arm made it worth the time.

She cuddled in to his chest afterwards, sighing gently.

"Thank you," she whispered. And then after a pause, "I'm glad I have you."

He held her close, listening to her breathing as it evened out, and fell asleep, glad to have someone to take care of.


	10. Chapter 10

The Tower was a bustle of activity the following morning. Jane was drawing up a schedule over breakfast in spite of a sleepy Darcy. Steve was deciding on a new area of possible Bucky presence to scope out.

"So we went to his grandmother's place and he'd been there..." he began.

"Someone had been there," Sam corrected him.

"Today I want to try some of our old haunts. See if we can find anything."

Thor glanced at Sam and Clint, glad to find the same expression of doubt and pity in their eyes. They would all follow Steve anyway, but this new level of obsession was beginning to worry them.

Steve led the way as he had the day before. He seemed more confident now that he was sure Bucky was out there. It was probably good for him to have purpose, as long as he wasn't too disappointed if they found nothing.

Most of their former hangouts had been long-since demolished or changed. At first there was no sign of any inhabitants, healthy or afflicted. The sites of parks empty, old cafés burnt out entirely; a residential home for the elderly was meant to be the midpoint of their excursion, but ended up being the final spot.

It had been houses, Steve said, and Bucky had had a lady friend who lived here. Might have moved back in the last few years, if she'd still been alive.

The building was eerily untouched. Only a rough slogan painted over the welcome sign warned visitors to stay away. They ignored it.

The plush carpet was patterned with brown splotches and Thor realised with horror that they were walking through the dried blood and viscera of a slaughter.

Most of the residents were either in their beds as though sleeping or dismembered horrifically. The difference in death was jarring, adding to the general wave of nausea flowing through Thor's stomach.

"They couldn't even run," Sam said, voice thick. "They couldn't even fucking run."

Steve insisted they press on. It felt like descending into Hel itself. The blood spatters became more frequent, as did the blooms of flies surrounding the dead.

Eventually they reached the centre of the building. Thor picked up one of the boxes from the medical bay. It seemed to be an emergency kit and might have some morphine to replace the supply he'd stolen previously.

He emerged from the room to the sound of Clint groaning.

"I'm gonna hurl," he said. "Shit... Shit, shit..."

Thor looked over his head into another room.

A woman in blue, possibly the head nurse, lay on the floor. Her stomach was ripped open and at first he thought she was the victim of a particularly gruesome attack. Her internal organs spilled from her, along with chunks of flesh crawling with maggots.

"Jane says they don't digest," he said thoughtfully. "And most are killed before they eat too much."

"So, what, she turned here, surrounded by helpless old folks," Sam said. "And she ate and ate until she..."

"Burst." Clint finished. He paused for a moment, leaning heavily against a wall. "I don't think anyone's living here, Steve. I want to go home and pretend I never saw that."

Steve hesitated but nodded. The open air was a relief to them all, to the point that their journey home was far faster as they hurried to get away from the horrors they had just seen.

They were again intercepted by Tony on their approach.

"OK," he said, shakily. "Er... Bad news. Fucking awful news."

"Can't be worse than we've just seen," Clint said.

"It really can. Thor, get in there right now. Pepper's trying to calm her down, but I think she's going to hurt herself."

"Jane?" Thor asked. "Has something gone wrong with her research?"

"You could say that. It's uh... It's Darcy. She's infected."

They practically tore their skin off getting through the cleaning station. Thor ran through the building even as Natasha tried to slow him down.

Jane was sitting outside what was technically the Hulk cell, slumped against Pepper who was gently stroking her hair.

"It's my fault," she said quietly. "If she hadn't been in the lab..."

Beyond, he could see Darcy's prone figure, strapped to a gurney and half out of her hazard suit, the tell-tale bruising mottling her skin.

"What happened?" he ventured.

Jane turned to him, face streaked with the tears of hours of crying and reached out to him desperately.

He could do nothing but hold her as she sobbed against his chest and listen as Pepper's gentle voice filled in the story.

How Jane had activated the emergency alarm when Darcy had said she felt strange and they'd identified the bruising. She'd taken off her gloves for just a second to scratch at the healing scabs on her knuckles without thinking she'd have to scrub her hands first. How the broken skin must have let it into her system.

He listened to how Jane had realised what was happening and how Darcy had begged to be killed because she didn't want to be one of 'Them'.

How she'd started to become woozy and Bruce had talked Jane through anesthetising her and they'd moved her to quarantine.

And that left them here, with Darcy essentially on life support and Jane catatonic with guilt.

"All right," Thor said. "What do we need to keep her alive?"

Jane turned her face to look up at him.

"What do you mean?"

"What are her needs?"

Jane frowned slightly. "Ok, if we keep her sedated, we'll also need to keep her hydrated and nourished. She'll need intravenous solution, she'll need...er, vitamins and stuff. But if she can't digest then..."

"But we can try."

She sat up properly and seemed to concentrate for some time.

"Digestion is triggered from the brain, pretty much everything is. If we can stimulate the right muscles, maybe we can force the body to process food. I'm going to need... Uh, tubes, syringes, electro-stimulation equipment... God, colostomy bags since her muscle control will be non-existant..."

She drew up a large shopping list. Some things they had, some things Steve and Clint raided the nearest hospital for. It took them most of the night, though to be honest everyone seemed happy to have a distraction.

It was a stop-gap solution, but as the gentle beeping of a stolen heart monitor eminated from the cell, at least it was a stop-gap that seemed to be working.

Thor had to physically carry Jane away, promising that they could make Darcy eat tomorrow.


	11. Chapter 11

He left Jane sleeping, exhausted by her efforts and her grief, and snuck down to the cell in the midmorning.

If it wasn't for the tubes slowly providing hydration and sedatives and the beeping machines, he would almost have believed Darcy was sleeping.

Tony came into the room behind him.

"OK," he said. "I've been reading up and I think I know where we need to place the electrodes, but I'll admit I'm not looking forward to surgery."

"Surgery?"

"Well, yeah, she can't process food on her own so we need to interrupt her inner workings and hook her up to bags and stuff so we can deal with the waste of digestion. It's OK. It's just pipes when you get down to it. Like a car."

Thor looked her over. 

"So undignified," he said. "Do you think she'll thank us?"

"Buddy, if we get her out alive, yeah, I think she will. Sometimes you have to lose a little dignity to gain a little life. And we're only doing this because we care about her. We don't want to lose our intern."

Natasha, feeling the need for action, had started drawing up timetables for looking after her. She'd need monitoring, feeding, they had to regulate her temperature, she'd need to be moved to prevent bed sores... There was a lot.

Pepper was insisting on being given more of the shifts.

"I don't do anything all day, really," she said. "I was really good at running a business, but that's irrelevant now. Let me help."

She wanted to read to her, those romance novels Darcy loved. She wanted to bring down her iPod and play her music. All the things the rest of them weren't thinking about when compared to her immediate physical requirements, but which leant her continued humanity.

Jane insisted that they get the surgery underway as soon as she was awake. Thor made her eat and drink before she slipped free of him and talked the procedure through with Tony.

It would take them some hours, especially since they weren't surgeons. Afterwards they would attach the electro-stimulation equipment and, since in theory yesterday's lunch was still mostly undigested in her stomach, within a few hours they would know if their efforts had worked.

Thor prowled the building restlessly. He didn't want to add any pressure to Jane as she cut her best friend open by watching.

Eventually he found himself up on the roof. It was probably safe enough up here, he thought, and breathing air outside of the hazard suit was too much to resist.

He looked down on the ruined city. Without maintenance it was already starting to fall into disrepair. From here it was easy to see the extent of the damage.

And also the determined movements of a figure far below.

At first he thought it was an afflicted, until he saw another figure, half crawling, and realised this first one was being too careful to be mindless.

He watched in silence as it hid, waiting until the afflicted passed before leaping out and attacking it from behind. There was a frenzy of motion for a few moments before everything went very still.

The first figure stood up and began to walk away. The shadows and distance concealed any details, and he wracked his brain to remember how Bucky had been described.

Long, dark hair. Fast. Ruthless. Intelligent. It seemed to fit.

Strangely though, he hesitated to tell Steve. It could easily be another survivor. He was unable to tell if the figure had a metal arm from this distance. He couldn't bear getting Steve's hopes up for nothing.

He'd seen the killer. They were close. Therefore he was likely to see him again. Or her, he supposed. And next time he'd be able to intercept.

He sat outside the impromptu ER and waited for Jane, ready to offer her support either way.

She seemed hopeful, but tired. She had to be coaxed into eating and she kept writing lists and ideas for meals that could be liquified. Tony confirmed a few hours later that the electrodes seemed to work. For the moment, Darcy was sustainable.

As long as she was busy, either in the lab or taking care of Darcy, Jane was alright. Every night, however, she slumped in bed and clung helplessly to the pillows. Thor comforted her as best he could. He hoped time would help her recover but was willing to wait as long as necessary.

It was a few days later, as Thor was lying very still in the morning in the hopes of not waking Jane before schedule, that Clint knocked cautiously on the door.

"Thor, er... You might want to get dressed," he said. "Your dad's here."

Jane sat up. Her last meeting with Odin hadn't been the most easy of things.

They dressed quickly. His father seemed very out of place, standing in the kitchen.

"Father," Thor said, a familiar sense of unease falling over him. "This is unexpected."

"Is it? I don't see why. We have been watching over you and we believed you were safe, but the disease is in your house now. I'm here to take you home."

Thor blinked. 

"But...we could evacuate then. Take the humans."

"No, Thor. Asgard is self-sustainable. We can handle our own population but we can't take that many refugees."

"Then... My friends. They are few, we could easily take them."

Odin's eye flickered and Clint coughed.

"No offence, Thor," he said. "But there's nothing for us in Asgard. We'd be second class citizens at best, fancy pets at worst. There's still hope for Earth. And, uh... I've been an Asgardian's dog. I don't want to be that again."

There was general nodding from the room.

"Jane," Thor said desperately. "Jane come with me."

She hesitated. "I can't leave Darcy. And we can't take her with us, the risk to Asgard is too much."

He stared at her incredulously and back at his father. He'd chosen Jane before. This was his home now. Other than his childhood friends, what was waiting for him? 

No throne. No mother.

No Loki.

He took a deep breath. 

"Father, I'm sorry. I won't be coming back with you."

There was a moment of silence before Odin visibly slumped.

"Well, brother. I tried."

Thor's blood ran cold.


	12. Chapter 12

His father melted away in front of him and Loki stood in his place.

No one moved for a second.

Thor lunged first.

He knocked Loki to the ground, falling fully on top of him. The others reached for weapons but seemed hesitant to attack when Thor was growling and wrapping his hands around his brother's neck.

"Not quite the welcome I was hoping for..." Loki managed. "I'm here to help, you idiot."

Thor let go and dragged him to his feet.

"Room. A room now. I wish to talk with my brother alone."

Tony pointed them down the corridor.

"Really, calm down," Loki said when Thor slammed him against the wall of an unused office.

"Calm down? I ought to strike you down..."

"Please. That might be what you should do, but it's not what you want and therefore it's not a real threat. Can't we skip this?"

Thor stared into those lying, sharp eyes and slumped helplessly.

"Why are you here?"

Loki laughed. "That's the question you want to ask? Not how I survived, not what I've been doing?"

Thor shrugged.

"I'm here for you. I was going to take you home but since you won't come then I'm going to stay with you. I'm not letting you be infected and hooked up to beeping machines until you slowly die. That's not how you're supposed to fall."

Thor paced a little. "You are not welcome in Asgard. Father would never accept you back, even if you brought me with you."

He felt sick as he watched Loki's face turn to a twisted smile.

"Didn't the All-Father seem a little strange the last time you saw him?"

"He was accepting and kind and..."

"Exactly."

He thought he was going to collapse. It was too much. 

"He's fine, by the way," Loki was saying, sinking into one of the padded executive chairs. "He's just having a little sleep."

"Why should I believe you?"

"I don't see that you have a choice. Midgard is under some kind of quarantine. No outside help is coming."

"And if I had gone with you? Would you have told me that you lived?"

He sat on the edge of the table as Loki considered this.

"I don't know," he said eventually. "But come on, Thor. Haven't you missed me? Even a little bit?"

Thor scrubbed his hands over his face. "I have missed you, or who you used to be, every day since you fell from the Bifrost."

Suddenly Loki was right in front of him, sliding his legs apart and sidling between them.

"Maybe I can be that person again. We can have that back, we can have it all. I want to forget the pain between us and start from fresh. Let me prove it to you. Let me stay..." he whispered.

And then Loki's mouth was pressing against his and Thor was remembering a thousand summer days, lazing with his brother in the palace grounds, playing and experimenting in the dappled sunlight, discovering themselves and each other in the night as the city slept around them.

Thor broke away, the taste of Loki bitter to him.

"They will never accept you," he said quietly.

Loki tucked a stray lock of hair behind Thor's ear.

"I'm not here for them. I'm here for you. If they want, they can keep me in one room. Just let me be with you as the world ends. It's how we were meant to be."

He could feel himself relenting, the inevitable drag of Loki's words, goading him to questionable decisions as he always did.

"Convince them, Thor. They'll listen to you."

Thor shoved him away. "My hopes are not high. Wait here."

He walked back down the corridor, wondering just when he had let Loki get such a hold over him. Or maybe it had always been like this.

"He's leaving, right?" Clint said immediately.

Thor sighed. "He just wants to be near me. He is worried that I'll die without him. He had taken over Asgard in my absence and he has given that up to live here with me."

"I don't buy it. How do we know he wasn't behind this?"

"Your realm is dying," Loki said, entering and ignoring the flinchs of the room. "What possible use is it to me to have a realm with no thinking inhabitants?"

"I told you to stay put," Thor said.

"And I told you that I want to put the past behind us. I'm here now. We're going to die down here, I have no interest in your petty lives. I just want to spend as much time with my brother as possible before the end."

"We're not going to die," Jane insisted, moving to stand beside Thor. "We're going to find a cure and we're going to live."

Loki turned on her. "Then let me help keep the building safe. You know what I can do, all of you."

Natasha coughed slightly. 

"He could be useful," she said. "He's strong. Fast. If we get attacked it would be good to have another fighter."

"I am not hearing this," Clint said. "I am not hearing this from you of all people."

"We believe in second chances here. I spent most of my life murdering the innocent and the guilty alike."

"That's different, you were practically brainwashed. You're not that person anymore."

"Yes. Well, maybe he's not who he used to be. His motivations have changed."

"This is a large building, little Hawk," Loki said. "You'll barely know I'm here."

A scowl in response. "You killed Coulson."

"I killed lots of people."

Well, that was unhelpful. Pepper shifted uncomfortably.

"Coulson's not dead," she said quietly. "Maria told me. They fixed him."

Clint stared around the room. "Did you know that? I didn't know that. Who knew that?"

Only Pepper, Natasha and Rhodey raised their hands. Everyone else was still trying to process Loki standing there nonchalantly.

"Was I ever going to be told this?"

"It didn't seem pertinent, what with the undead and all..." Rhodey said.

"They're not undead," Jane insisted. "They're sick." 

She sighed deeply. "I don't like this either, but Natasha's right. We need all the help we can get. Put him in the room next to Thor and me, put the codes on all the doors. A trial run to start with."

Loki thanked her awkwardly. Thor leant towards her for a kiss. He wasn't normally keen on public displays of affection, but he felt the occasion required it.

He kept his eyes on Loki throughout, hoping his message was clear.

She's my priority. Back off.

The faint look of amusement in Loki's face told him that he was already on his way to losing this game.


	13. Chapter 13

"So that's it?" Clint said. "We're all just going to live here with a genocidal maniac? Everyone's OK with this?"

"Actually," Bruce said. "I've been looking for the right time to tell everyone and this seems like the right moment for upheavals. Rhodey and I are going to Washington."

Tony physically spun on his feet.

"Wait, what? Why?"

"We're not doing anything here. I can't help Jane in the lab, I can't go near Darcy. The risk to everyone is too great if I get infected. I can't be sedated, I need to live in the quarantine zone. I can help there."

Rhodey couldn't look Tony in the eye. "You've got your stuff. Your work. Steve and the others are looking for Bucky, or searching for a cure or taking care of each other. I'm good in governing, I think I'll be better there, I'll be more useful. We'll be in touch, but... It's the right thing to do."

There was general tension now. Clint was furious that Loki was staying, Tony that his best friends were leaving. Steve seemed to be having a minor crisis.

An alarm buzzed on Jane's phone.

"Who wants to help me feed Darcy?" she asked.

Pepper accepted gratefully, glad to have an excuse to leave.

Clint stormed out with Natasha in pursuit.

Thor nudged Loki, desperate to get away from the tension. 

"Come on," he said. "I'll pick you out somewhere to sleep."

They walked silently up the stairs. Loki glanced into the room Thor shared with Jane, their collective debris scattered on the floor. In comparison the next one was empty and sterile.

"So, what's Bucky?" Loki asked, testing the bed while Thor stood awkwardly behind him.

"An old friend of Steve's, thought lost and brainwashed to be a killer. We've been looking for him, but I don't really believe he is in this city at all."

"Hmm. Well, that explains why the soldier hates me so much."

Thor laughed bitterly. "You tried to subjugate his planet, I think it's justified."

"It's not that," Loki said, lounging back. "It's because I'm back again while his friend remains lost. Why should you get me, to have and to hold, back from the dead for a second time, and he not get his Bucky?"

"It's not the same."

"No." He patted the empty half of the bed. "Sit, brother. You're making the room untidy."

Thor sighed and sat, stiffly. Loki immediately sat up and moved behind him.

"So tense..." he said, strong fingers beginning to work at the knots in his shoulders. "You've been so stressed recently."

Thor resisted the urge to lean back into his touch.

"What are you doing?" he asked as Loki closed the door with a gesture.

"I'm taking care of you," Loki murmured. "You should let me."

Thor sat deadly still as Loki's hands moved across his flesh.

"You should lie down, brother. It would make this easier for me..."

He shook himself free, standing up. "I know what you're trying to do. It won't work."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"You're trying to seduce me. Like you did so long ago, like you always did."

They stared at each other for a second.

"I chose Jane. I choose Jane." Thor said.

"I know. And I chose you." He reached out to Thor. "She's busy right now, and time is short. Wouldn't you like to, for old time's sake? One last time before we die?"

This was torture. He'd imagined getting another chance to speak to Loki, some other opportunity to make him understand that he had never stopped loving him, no matter what he might think. But it had never been like this.

It hadn't been on an infected little planet, surrounded by his friends who were Loki's enemies. They'd had time, in his mind.

And what was worse was that yes, in his mind, it hadn't taken them any time at all to fall back into each other's arms. In his mind, Loki had fluttered and fallen into his embrace within seconds.

He thought about Jane downstairs, looking after her best friend in a hopeless situation.

"I can't do this, Loki. I can't."

Loki stood up and moved to block the door.

"I've come here, abandoning the throne of Asgard, as was rightfully mine, and I have come here to live among my enemies, some of whom would put arrows through my neck without a thought, and I have done this for you."

"I never asked you to."

"And I never asked you for a thing, except to be mine as you know I am yours."

Thor attempted to escape, not as forcefully as he might have done. He ended up nose to nose with Loki, bracketing him against the door.

"Just once," Loki said, leaning in to kiss Thor's neck. "Just one last time. Don't worry, just let go."

Thor's head was spinning, like he was drunk. The dreamlike rush of having Loki here in front of him, not dead and not chained and not violent... Maybe this was just a dream. Maybe it was. And things done in dreams were not wrong, they were just shadows.

"Just once?" he asked wincing at his own lack of resolve. He was giving himself excuses and he knew it.

Loki grinned at him and wrapped his arms around his waist.

"One last time. And then you can crawl back to your lady love. I never told another and I won't start now."

Thor let himself be led back to the bed and pushed down, slightly dazed.

"How long has it been, Thor? Since you last had this?"

"I'm with Jane. Two days, perhaps. Why, how long has it been for you?"

"How long do you think?"

Loki was straddling him now, tugging at his belt and unfamiliar fabrics.

"Well, I'm not sure. You might have fucked your way through the nine realms for all I know."

A slap across the face was not what Thor was expecting. He snarled in response and flipped them, pinning Loki down.

Loki grabbed his hair and dragged him down until his ear was level with Loki's mouth.

"I have neither touched nor been touched since the night before your coronation. Remember that night? I thought you would break the bedframe. All the while, I knew you would be so vexed when your big day didn't go as planned and how angry and punishing you would..."

Thor twisted sideways and slammed their lips together messily, mainly to get Loki to shut up for once. Possessiveness flared through him suddenly and he sat up to tear Loki's clothes open.

Loki squirmed when he stopped. Horror abruptly slammed into Thor's stomach at what lay before him.

Loki's torso was covered in bitemarks.


	14. Chapter 14

"We don't have much time, Thor."

Loki's words brought him back to the present.

He leapt to his feet in a panic.

"What did this to you?" he asked, hoping against hope that there was some other explanation.

"Didn't you see the gifts I left you? Outside the hospital and this building?"

"You? You killed them?"

"Well, yes. I wanted you safe. Anything got too close, I killed them. Except once, when you seemed to want to deal with one yourself. But you may have noticed that they are prone to biting..."

Thor slumped against the wall. If Loki had been bitten he was probably infected. And they'd kissed, it would be rushing through his bloodstream even now.

And he'd kissed...

"Jane," he said, running from the room and down towards the lab.

Pepper and Jane were only just leaving the cell. He was abruptly aware that he was shirtless and that his belt was undone. Pepper was politely looking away

"Jane," he said breathlessly. "I must speak with you immediately. And alone."

She looked at him fearfully. "Alright. I'll just get through cleansing."

He paced, stomach churning. He'd done it now. He'd let Loki back into his life, back into his heart and nearly into his bed, and now, as a direct result, Jane was going to die.

He fell to his knees in front of her.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

She ran her hand soothingly through his hair.

"Why, what's happened? What's going on?"

"Loki's been bitten. I didn't know and we kissed and then I kissed you and... I'm so sorry, Jane. We need to be quarantined immediately."

Her hand stopped suddenly.

"He's your brother, why would you...kiss him?"

Thor looked up at her desperately. She was the first person he'd ever told in all of his long life that he and Loki were more and less than brothers. He could feel the disgust and disbelief radiating from her. He'd felt it from Heimdall a hundred times and more. He'd felt it from himself on occasion when he told himself he could leave Loki at any time, that what they did was nothing more than youthful play. It wasn't love, it wasn't... That's what he had told himself.

And then he'd come to Midgard and he'd met Jane and she'd had something, some tenderness and gentleness that he'd been missing without knowing, that he hadn't known he'd wanted.

The betrayal in Loki's eyes when he'd talked about 'that woman' had haunted him.

Jane's voice cut through his thoughts.

"You mean... You and him, you're... While I was feeding Darcy? He's barely been here an hour, Thor."

Thor wept.

Jane took a step back and looked over his head.

"Those look like old bites," she said. "When was the most recent?"

"Three days ago," Loki's voice from the doorway.

"Have any ever broken the skin?"

"A few. This one, here on my arm for instance. But that was perhaps a week ago. They're bites, they heal."

"Have you experienced bruising or lethargy?"

Thor couldn't believe what he was hearing. Jane's voice was perfectly steady. He wondered if she had gone into some kind of catatonic state, or if she hadn't understood what he'd said.

"You should be infected," she said softly. "But you're not."

Thor tried to cling to her legs as she began to walk away but she carefully kicked him off.

"I realise we haven't always got along, but can I have some of your blood, please?"

Loki laughed behind him. "No, I don't think that will be happening."

Thor sat up properly and turned around. Loki and Jane were standing off against one another.

"Jane, I don't think you've understood," Thor tried.

She turned back to face him. "You and he are half naked in front of me and you just tearfully explained that you kissed him. I've understood the facts, if not the reasoning, perfectly. There's a lot about you that I don't follow, but this I have managed. But more importantly, I've understood that Loki has survived something that no one else has. And therefore, for humanity, for Darcy, I need to find out how and why. I need his blood."

"And I said you can't have my blood," Loki said, clearly amused by Thor's distress and Jane's blasé response.

Her eyes flickered back and forth between them. She set her jaw.

"I have something you want," she said carefully. "If you do this for me, I will let you have access to Thor."

Thor shook his head desperately.

"No," he said. "No, Jane it was a mistake. It was a moment's weakness. I love _you_. I love you..."

She shrugged. "You love him too, evidently. You were about to cheat on me with your brother, would have done if it weren't for this. I would have come to bed tonight and wondered why you tasted different. I would have found scratches on you that I didn't leave. You have no moral ground here."

"I'm sorry. Don't leave me, please."

A frown. "Did I say anything at all about exclusive access? I'm not giving you up. I'm giving you permission to do this."

Loki looked terrifyingly large next to Jane, looming over her. "For a little blood, you will allow this?" he tried to confirm.

"Oh, no," she said. "I'm going to need much more than just blood. I think we need a consent form drawn up."

He grinned horribly. "Well done, Thor. You've managed to find a real negotiator. Shall we talk elsewhere, Dr Foster?"

The illusion of clothing materialised over his chest as he held out an arm. Jane took it, security and confidence in her eyes.

Thor remained on the floor, unable to stand just yet. 

He had just been prostituted to his brother by his lady.

He'd have laughed at this story if he'd heard it in a tavern long ago. Happening to him, it was somehow a lot less funny and a lot more worrying.

He loved Jane. He loved Loki. He loved them differently.

Part of him was horrified that he was being treated as a bargaining chip between them. He was not a piece of meat to be bartered.

Another, more shameful part was thankful. He would have them both. In theory it was the best possible outcome.

There was a crash somewhere above his head, like a china mug being dropped on the hard floor of the kitchen.

He couldn't quite bring himself to investigate.

Bed. Bed was safe. He could lie down and attempt to make sense of this.

Maybe he'd wake up and find that this entire day had been a dream. Loki had not come in the guise of their father. He was dead. The dead do not come back. He had not come into Thor's life again and he had not tempted him into being unfaithful to Jane. Jane was not, at this very moment, making demands and ultimatums, trading Thor's body for science.

Of course not.


	15. Chapter 15

"The following is an agreement between Dr Jane Foster, lately of New York, Earth (hereafter referred to as Dr Foster) and His Majesty, Loki Laufeyson, King of Asgard (hereafter referred to as Mr Laufeyson) concerning Thor Odinson (hereafter Mr Odinson) formerly of Asgard, lately of New York, Earth..."

Pepper's neat handwriting danced under Thor's eyes as he tried to read faster and faster.

"Dr Foster agrees to allow Mr Laufeyson equal relationship rights to Mr Odinson, including romantic and sexual interest.

"In return, Mr Laufeyson gives his consent for Dr Foster to perform biopsy experiments upon his person as she sees fit.

"The following caveats and conditions apply.

"1. Dr Foster reserves exclusive access to her own bed. Mr Laufeyson is not to sleep or engage in any other act in Dr Foster's bed. The reverse is also true. It is expected that Mr Odinson will continue to sleep in Dr Foster's bed though she has no objection to sleeping alone on up to four nights per week.

"2. Though no set timetable is currently in place, should either party feel their time with Mr Odinson to be unfairly limited, this may change.

"3. Discussion of any romantic or sexual act engaged in with Mr Odinson is prohibited. Kissing in view of the other party is permitted.

"4. If consented to by Mr Odinson, light marks (bites, scratches) may be left on his skin.

"5. Conversation between Dr Foster and Mr Laufeyson will be as civil as possible at all times.

"6. During experiments, minimal pain will be caused to Mr Laufeyson.

"7. The following experiments are forbidden: cloning, magic disabling, removal of senses, temporary or permanent incapacitation.

"8. Any discoveries made by Dr Foster during her experiments, unless directly related to the cure she seeks, will remain confidential.

"9. All parties will at all times practise safe sex."

Beneath this, Jane and Loki had both signed.

They sat opposite him, watching as he read over the contract. He wondered at how easily they had united against him. As an afterthought, and probably at Pepper's insistence, a space had been left for him to sign his acceptance too.

His hand shook slightly as he scrawled his name. Pepper leant over him and signed on a fourth line, marked 'witness'.

"Are we keeping this a secret?" she asked. 

The earlier crash of crockery had been her reaction to Jane asking her to draw up an incestuous polyamory contract. She seemed strangely calm about the whole thing, as though she'd thrown up a block in her mind.

"I don't mind," Loki said. "I suppose it might be easier to have it out in the open. And of course Barton knows already."

Thor glared at him. 

"You said you hadn't told another person," he said accusingly.

"I didn't tell him. He fought against the sceptre. Saw some things he shouldn't have."

Thor thought over all the time he'd known Clint, all that time he'd known Thor's biggest secret. And he'd told no one. 

"Alright," Jane said. "So out of the people who'll still be here at the end of the week, that leaves Steve, Tony, Natasha and Sam not knowing. Do we want to tell them?"

"You live in the same building, it might be hard to hide," Pepper said. "I'll talk to them, how's that? One step away from the actual fact."

Thor nodded absently. Well, why not.

"Thank you, Ms Potts," Loki was saying. "If you'll excuse us, my brother and I were rather in the middle of catching up..."

"No, you don't," Jane said. "Blood first."

He followed them downstairs as though in a dream. Loki didn't so much as flinch as Jane stuck a needle in his arm.

"A pleasure doing business with you," Loki said, shaking her hand.

He took Thor by the shoulder and led him back to the room now designated his.

"Now, as I recall, you were about to let loose and screw me into the mattress," he said carelessly as he closed the door. "Shall we get back to it?"

"No," Thor said firmly. "No."

"Why not? Jane agrees, she knows. Soon everyone will know. We finally won't have to hide in little corners and be quick about everything. You don't even have to feel guilty. You've done right by her."

"I want to sort some things out between us first."

He insisted that Loki sit down and explain a few facts. How he'd woken on Svartalfheim, apparently amazed that he was alive and gone back to Asgard in disguise. How Odin had expressed no remorse for his 'death' but slipped quietly into the Odinsleep during the convergence. How Loki had seen his chance and seized the throne.

Heimdall knew but could do nothing while the realm was unthreatened.

Loki had watched the outbreak with some interest for as long as it hadn't threatened Thor. He'd heard his words about being rash and came to Midgard then for the first time since his ill-fated conquering attempt.

He'd fought and killed any afflicted attracted to the lights in the hospital.

And then when Heimdall reported that Darcy was infected, he'd decided to mount a rescue mission. Either Thor was coming home or Loki was staying. No other options.

"Are you satisfied?" he asked finally.

Thor wondered how much of this story he could trust really.

"You have traded your flesh for mine. I suppose we are equal," he mused.

He lay back on the bed, letting Loki crawl up his body, peppering him with kisses.

Loki stopped, frowning.

"You really think I'm just here to fuck, don't you?"

Thor looked at him blankly. "Why else? You hate me. We have established this fact. And you wasted no time in trying to get what you wanted."

Loki flopped down next to him, staring at the ceiling.

"If sex was all I wanted, I could have come here at any time, convinced you that you dreamt and been back in Asgard in time for dinner. I love you, you dense oaf. If the end is coming, I want to be with you. And I hate you, I suppose. But the love came first and has always been stronger."

"You tried to kill me."

A sideways glance. "And I am the only one allowed to kill you."

"That's not very comforting."

Loki rolled away from him.

"I don't like you like this," he said against the pillow. "What happened to make you so melancholy and maudlin?"

The words slipped out before Thor could stop them.

"You died."


	16. Chapter 16

There was an extremely awkward pause.

Thor left, retreating to his own bed. He couldn't get comfortable and eventually decided to head for the roof. No one would think to look for him up there.

Unfortunately it seemed Barton had had the same idea. 

Thor hesitated, not realising the door was about to clunk shut behind him and betray his position.

"Go away, Nat."

"Not Nat. Sorry, I didn't... I'll leave."

Clint continued to stare out over the city and kept talking.

"So, how long did it take to get you back on his side? Was a blow job enough or did you hold out for the full works?"

Thor spluttered defensively.

"We haven't..." he tried. "We didn't yet."

"But you're going to. That's what 'yet' means. You're going to let him worm his way back and leave Jane like she doesn't matter. Aren't you?"

"It isn't like that."

Clint turned to look at him finally.

"Isn't it? You should tell me, Thor, because I've only heard one side. You know, in his head, you were unwilling at first. He tricked you into it. But the more I think about it, the less I buy that. I think you wanted it too, just as much, and it was convenient to let him think he was getting the upper hand."

Thor ran a hand through his hair, guiltily.

"We were young," he said. "Too young. And I was older, I was supposed to look after him. I was meant to tell him that brothers didn't kiss that way. But I couldn't stop. And then, one night, he worked so hard at manufacturing an excuse where we'd have to share a bed and he could just roll over and 'accidentally' brush up against me... I knew exactly what he was doing but I wanted it, so I let him. I told myself it would only happen once. It was just yielding to temptation one time. But then he tried again, and again, and once because twice became twenty times until it stopped being him moving towards me always and became both of us, orbiting the other. I used to blame him, in my darker moments, I would tell myself that he had bewitched me in some way... But I think it's something in both of us really."

Silence. Clint was staring outwards again.

"I didn't expect you to actually tell me," he said quietly. "I was being rhetorical."

"I'm sorry."

"It's just... He's your brother, man. Your brother. It's not OK here, it's not OK on Asgard, just... What were you even thinking, letting yourself go that way? I don't understand how you - how anyone but especially not you - can love someone so...cold."

It was a question Thor had asked himself a hundred times.

"He made me laugh. He was my constant companion. Wherever I was, he was too, ready with easy jokes and barbs for those around us. He's the one who comforted me when our father yelled at me or a girl rejected my attentions. He would help me get away with all manner of adolescent mischief. He meant more to me than anything in the universe, he was like an extension of my life. And with the physicality as well... We're so tangled up that we can't let go."

"He made me murder friends of mine," Clint said. "The voice in my nightmares is his, never harsh, just gently suggesting that I should shoot that man, steal that material, burn that building. I wake up and I have to check on Natasha because I can't trust my memories. He was going to make me... God, just thinking about it makes me sick."

He trailed off and Thor was suddenly horribly aware of how close to the edge of the building he was.

Clint flinched when he laid a hand on his shoulder to pull him back.

"You never told anyone what you knew. Thank you."

A shrug. "Not my business. And you left, next I heard he was dead. Figured nobody needed to know you'd fucked your brother and then he'd fucked you over. I never expected it to become an issue."

"I am truly sorry for what he did to you. But he is my brother and I have to believe that we can go back. We've both changed. I'm better. Perhaps I can make him better."

Clint didn't seem remotely convinced.

"Besides, Jane wants to study him. She thinks the cure could be in his blood. That's why she's willing to share me with him."

The response to this was instantaneous.

"Jesus Christ, Thor, I knew it. I knew you'd somehow get coerced back into his insanity. If you knew what he planned to do... I saw it all, cages and chains and statues a thousand feet tall. Blood and screaming and total obedience from the cattle of Midgard. But for not me, oh no, I was getting one of the fanciest cages, at his beck and call to run his errands any time of day or night and if I was lucky, he'd let me sleep without restraints, if I was a good pet and did what I was told..."

"He is without the sceptre. He no longer has its power. You will be safe."

"I am never going to feel safe again just knowing that he's alive, let alone knowing he's two floors down. He's the monster under my bed. Literally. And he'll be down there, with you. Don't you know sleeping with someone gives them immense power over you? Don't come crying to me when you find yourself unable to trust him again."

He left, vanishing back inside before Thor could attempt to respond.

Natasha stepped out of a shadow. He couldn't tell how long she'd been there.

"So," she said. "Incest, huh?"

There didn't seem to be an obvious response to that.

"Clint's right, you know. You'd be vulnerable to him anyway, even if it weren't for the sex, him being your brother and all. But with this as well... Still, Clint forgets that it's a two-way street. Loki came looking for you, he wants you back. He's compromised with Jane. Clearly you've got most of the power here, unless it's a ruse."

"Please, stop," Thor said. "I don't want to think in terms of power and control."

"Ah. Then you really do love him."

She patted him arm vaguely. "I once told him that love is for children. I was lying. But love is going to make you do the dumbest things."

"I still love Jane. I don't understand why she's done this to me."

"OK. Let's think this through. How much do you love Loki? And I don't mean lie to me, don't even tell me. Just think about it. Are you thinking about it? How do you feel?"

"Stupid. For letting him have such a hold on me. And like even though I know that, I'm sure I'll die still loving him. And... I think about him all the time. Missing him, or who he was..."

"Right. And tell me the truth. If you could spend the rest of your life with him or with Jane but not both, which would you choose?"

He balked at that question.

"That's what I thought," Natasha said. "Well, that's how Jane feels about science. It doesn't lessen her feelings for you, but... Science comes first."

"Loki doesn't come first for me."

She smiled sadly at him.

She'd reached the door before Thor spoke again.

"What comes first for you?"

She didn't respond.


	17. Chapter 17

Pepper organised a Tower meeting and afterwards no one could look Thor in the eye.

He sat through the most awkward dinner of his life. Neither Jane nor Loki appeared. He assumed they were in the lab. Clint took his meal away to his room.

It was only once Pepper had left to go read to Darcy that Tony placed his fork down firmly and deliberately.

"Alright," he said. "Are we going to talk about the big incestuous elephant in the room or not?"

Steve spluttered.

Sam looked at him and cleared his throat. "As the person who has known Thor the least amount of time, I'd like to say that I listened very carefully to the explanation and I am willing to accept it. I kinda think it was sick and gross when you thought you were brothers, but you're not, so it's cool."

"We are brothers," Thor said.

"Yeah, but not... Not really though."

The argument wasn't worth having. He shook Sam's hand across the table.

"I don't want to think about it, so I don't intend to," Bruce said.

"Yeah, I mean... Yeah. I'm going to pretend I don't know," Rhodey this time.

"You know my view," Natasha said. "So I won't repeat it."

"And I think we've all fucked people we regret, but you have raised the bar incredibly," Tony said, gesturing vaguely. "But speaking as someone who in the past has had a threesome with twins, it might be a little off for me to be all high-and-mighty about incest. For the record, they did not touch each other. But if it works for you and Jane and it keeps Loki out of trouble, then go ahead, I say."

"You're disgusting," Steve said quietly. "You're all just going to let this happen under our roof."

"What, sex? I hate to tell you, buddy, but..."

"No, not that."

"Then what? Two guys? We don't really frown on that so much now, most of us anyway."

"No, not that either. They are brothers. Just because there's no blood doesn't magically make it not true. I'm pretty sure that's still frowned upon. Even if they weren't brothers, this is _Loki_. He has tried to kill all of us at least once."

"He never tried to kill me," Sam said.

"He has been killing the afflicted for us," Thor said without thinking. "The bodies we found were his kills."

Steve looked at him in horror. The realisation stole over him like a wave.

If Loki had killed those people, that meant it wasn't Bucky. He saw Steve's faith in his friend falter. Maybe Bucky wasn't out there. Still, Loki had been defending the Tower, for no better reason than Thor lived there.

"How do you know this?" Steve asked.

"He told me."

"He lied!" 

Natasha slammed her hand on the table.

"Steve," she said gently. "Calm down. I hate that I have to say this to you, but Bucky isn't here. Feelings and sensing... That means nothing without proper evidence. Loki is here. He's strong and fast, he favours blades. The first bodies were left for Thor, a person Bucky has never met. You have to admit, it makes sense."

"Bucky's alive," Steve insisted.

"I'm sure he is. But he's not here. Loki is."

"Well, he shouldn't be! He doesn't deserve to be here, he doesn't deserve acceptance. He doesn't deserve you, Thor."

He seemed embarrassed by his outburst. Thor took a deep breath.

"I understand that you are angry," he said. "I do. We spoke about our relative ghosts. Mine is back. I'm sorry that Bucky is not here. But I'm not sorry to have my brother back. We are both over a thousand years old. Our natural lifespan is several millenia longer than yours. He was with me before any of you were born and, if we survive this plague, he will still be with me when all of you are mere happy memories."

It wasn't often that Thor reminded everyone of how old he was. Darcy used to joke about the 'creepy age gap' between him and Jane. 

"If Pepper explained our arrangement then you know that Jane is trying to find a cure in Loki's blood," he continued. "He is willing for this to happen. I think it is a sign of his new good will towards humanity that he gives his efforts to your salvation."

"He only agreed because Jane traded him you," Steve said, bite in every word. "It's your good will we're relying on, though I don't think you took much convincing."

"Look," Tony said. "The way I see it, there's a few things we need to accept. Firstly, Loki's not going anywhere. Secondly, Thor doesn't intend to give him up. So we can deal with this and move on or we can... not. I just think we'll be happier with the first option. Alienating the aliens won't help."

Steve frowned. "Thor, I'm sorry. But I don't think I'll ever be alright with this."

Thor nodded. That seemed fair. He didn't want understanding or endorsement. He just wanted acceptance. 

It would be a long time coming. Steve announced that he was going to bed. The awkwardness didn't leave with him. 

Thor decided to exit too.

He wasn't sure what led him to knocking on Loki's door.

"Thor?"

He seized Loki's face in both hands and pressed their lips together. It was gentle and soft, most like how they had kissed before they knew what they were doing.

Loki's eyelashes fluttered against his cheek.

He slid one hand to Loki's hip and pushed him gently back into his room. The door closed behind him.

"I missed you," Loki whispered when they broke apart, his eyes shining with too many wasted years.

Thor didn't trust himself to speak and pulled Loki fully clothed onto the bed, wrapping both legs around him and running his hands over the flesh that he knew was so scarred beneath his garments.

Loki sighed and curled against him, submitting to this petting and caressing, nuzzling into Thor's chest.

Thor wasn't sure which of them shed the first tear. He only knew the desperate clinging and the deep pain of two little gods far from home and lost in the dark together.


	18. Chapter 18

Jane seemed genuinely surprised to see him.

"I... I thought you'd be spending the night in Loki's room."

Thor sighed. "He's asleep. And, er... We didn't... anything. We just talked."

"You don't have to tell me about it, or justify anything, it's all fine."

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Actually, I'm planning to spend most of tomorrow running bloodwork so I got you a present."

She produced a small bottle from her pocket.

"I'm... Jane, where did you even get this?"

"What, you don't think Tony has lubricant stashed everywhere? It wasn't hard to find and there's plenty more. I don't think even gods could exhaust the supply."

He flopped heavily on the bed.

"Was that a thank you?" she asked. "It's for your comfort and safety."

"Sorry. Thank you. I'm still just struggling to deal with you selling me to him and actively encouraging us to have sex. It's not a situation I ever expected to be in."

She lay down next to him, pyjamas soft where her arm brushed his.

"It will make you happy though? I've not...pushed you into anything you don't actually want to do?"

He thought hard about this.

"No. I mean, yes, once I'm ready I will be happy to have him back in...that way. I do want this."

"Oh, OK. Good. I mean, I never exactly expected to be a pimp but I like to think I'd be a nice one, if I was."

He laughed helplessly. Of all the things to say.

He laced their fingers together.

"It's been a long and strange day," he said. "This very morning I was lying here trying to think of how I would keep you safe and happy as you look after Darcy. Now I'm here again but everything's different. My brother is back. He wants me again. My father is...possibly dead. I don't even know who is tending to Asgard. My biggest secret is known by my dearest friends and some of them will never trust me again. I am exhausted, Jane."

She slid an arm under his neck and cuddled him to the softness of her chest. It amazed him that someone so tiny was able to envelop him so.

He let his breathing slow as Jane stroked his hair and he listened to the quiet beat of her heart.

"You don't have to think about anything you don't want to while you're here with me," she said quietly. "And you can talk or not talk or whatever you need. Everything is weird now. I don't want us to be weird."

He let her keep talking as she eased tangles from his hair.

"Loki told me in the lab that I'm not the first woman you've seen while also seeing him. And he says he won't try to separate us because I make you happy and that's all he wants."

"You might not be the first woman I've had a relationship with," he mumbled half against her sternum. "But you are the first one I've been in love with. It's not the same. The others were... They were lovely, and I thought I loved them but... I was young and wrong. Besides, Loki didn't like to share. I would tell them they couldn't tell anyone because of my station, but really it was because I was scared he would find out. And he always did. And then...they would tell me that they couldn't see me anymore and, what a surprise, Loki was always available to comfort me in imaginative ways. I managed to figure it out quite easily."

"Was there ever anyone else for him?"

"I don't know. I never pryed. I told myself that I was not possessive or jealous like him, and I think I would have tolerated a woman. A wife for him, even. After all, I expected we would get married, to other people. But... If I had ever heard of another man, I think I would have lost my temper. I was not good at keeping it in check back then."

She petted him a little more before sliding out from under him. His head was heavy after all. But she kept their fingers linked.

"I'm flattered and glad to be the first woman you loved," she said.

"I imagine you have had a parade of lovers."

They had never really had this conversation. It had never seemed right.

"Maybe not a parade. A small procession maybe. And not many of them hung around long. Not many people can deal with their partner running off into the desert to search for astronomical anomalies at the drop of a hat."

"Did you love them? Any of them?"

She rearranged their grip slightly.

"I spent a lot of time not really knowing what love was," she said carefully. "Some guys I didn't realise I loved for years later. Others I thought I did, but...maybe not. There's only been a few where I'm pretty certain. You're one of those, by the way."

He drew her hand to his lips to kiss it.

"But it doesn't really matter. Love is immeasurable. You can't pin it down and say, 'Ah, yes, 30 grams of love, right there'. And you can't use up your love. It's one of those rare things, an infinite resource. So I want you to know that I understand that you have a lot of love in you. And you never stopped loving Loki, so just because he's back, that doesn't make your love for me change or anything because that love was always there anyway. And really, when you get down to it, it's all just brain function, just chemicals and neuron flashes. I mean, important and life-changing and wonderful chemicals and neuron flashes, but still..."

She was rambling now, but her heart was in the right place.

"Have you been talking to Natasha?" he asked.

"Yes, actually. I had no idea she was so insightful when it came to emotions, but I suppose the whole spy thing should have been a clue..."

He fell asleep still in her arms.

At least he would have done, if Jane had been able to reach around him properly. She managed one arm over his chest, just anchored at his ribs.

It was grounding enough.


	19. Chapter 19

Someone was softly kissing his lips and he automatically kissed back.

He was genuinely surprised when he opened his eyes to see dark hair and jerked away.

"Ssh," Loki said. "It's just me. You're safe."

People he would believe that from did not include Loki.

"Where's Jane?" he asked instead.

Loki's eyes didn't so much as flicker.

"She's down in the lab," he said. "And you've slept through most of the morning. I'm thinking breakfast. You can show me what they eat on Midgard."

It was almost creepy for Loki to be like this. Thor kept waiting for the mask to fall as he dutifully talked their way through coffee and toast.

The whole building was quiet and they ate in strangely companionable silence until Bruce came in with an empty box.

He did not seem pleased to see them as he started going through a bookshelf and removing a few volumes.

"Where is everyone?" Thor asked, desperately trying to cancel out the tension.

Bruce didn't look over.

"Pepper and Tony are making an inventory of the building's assets, Rhodey and I are packing our stuff for storage or taking to Washington. Natasha is doing whatever Natasha does when she's in her room, possibly sleeping, possibly reading, possibly anything. Jane is in the lab. Darcy is unconscious. And Steve, Sam and Clint are out looking for Bucky."

"They didn't wake me..."

That made him look.

"Thor, were you at the same meal as me last night? I'm sorry, but I think you're off the squad."

Thor looked grumpily down at his muesli. They'd gone without him. He knew Clint wasn't talking to him and maybe Steve, but Sam might have...

Loki laid a careful hand on his shoulder.

"Why don't we leave Dr Banner in peace and you can show me exactly where I can and can't go," he suggested. "I'd hate to trespass anywhere I'm not wanted."

Thor pretended he hadn't heard Bruce's half snort at that.

He felt it would be prudent to keep Loki on the floor containing their bedrooms and lower. In theory, if they watched their schedules, he might be able to stay out of Clint's way altogether. And he would have access to the lab, the gym - on the offchance he wanted to train - and the entertainment system. 

Surely there would be enough to keep even Loki safely occupied.

They sauntered through the lab on their way.

"Your blood is really weirdly normal, Loki," Jane said, spotting them.

"Did you find any ant clots?" Thor asked.

After all, maybe he wasn't immune, maybe he just wasn't infected at all.

"Yes. They're definitely there. But they're... I don't know, destroyed or something. At first I thought that your veins might be bigger than a human's and therefore not so easily blocked, but you'd have still passed it to Thor, who would have passed it to me. And I'm fine, so... Somehow your blood has killed them."

"Oh..." Loki said. "I know it might be difficult to believe, but the idea of my blood being full of tiny corpses isn't exactly...pleasing to me."

He looked thoroughly disgusted and Thor was reminded of childhood games of looking for creatures in rivers and under rocks and how Loki had never liked little things with too many legs.

"Tell you what," Jane said. "I need more samples so tomorrow I'll let you see what they look like. It might make you feel a bit better."

"I doubt it. And if you're planning on bleeding me dry, you might want to find a more efficient method."

Jane giggled. Thor had to admit, this was still strange. Not only were Jane and Loki getting on, they were laughing together. Sooner or later something had to snap and all this was going to come crashing down, possibly bringing the building with it.

Someone's hair would be cut or someone would be accused of doing unspeakable things with a horse...

Loki slid an arm round his waist and let it hang there. Jane's eyes flicked to it behind her goggles.

"Yeah, so tomorrow..." she said. "Let's say around 11, if that's OK?"

"It's not as though I have anywhere else I need to be."

Jane nodded. She had the distinct air of having dismissed them. Thor couldn't decide if she just wanted to get back to her work without distraction or if she was uncomfortable actually seeing them being even the least bit intimate.

He led Loki back upstairs and stopped outside their rooms.

"So..." Loki said. "That's my domain then, is it?"

"It seems so."

They stood with far more awkwardness than brothers should ever have to stand.

"Thor... I realise it might take you a little time to get used to the idea of being with me again. I'm sure that... That your blood was just hot yesterday morning and you were over-excited. But, well... It's been a long time and..."

"Are you asking me to fuck you?"

"No. No, no. I am asking if you'll let me take you to bed and look after you a little."

"Ah, so you're asking if you can fuck me..."

Loki grinned. "So astute, brother."

"And that's why you've been so well-behaved and nice this morning."

A pout. Apparently calling Loki out was still not allowed.

"Don't you remember? How it used to be? How I knew exactly how to take care of your every desire? How good it felt for both of us? And hiding together in the dark and biting into each other's flesh to silence our screams... Haven't you missed it? You can't have been with a man in such a long time."

"All right," Thor said. "All right. Go lie down, I just need to get a couple of things from my room."

Loki dragged him close to plant a kiss against his lips.

"I'll be waiting."


	20. Chapter 20

"What in the realms is that?"

Thor held up the bottle carefully.

"It's Midgardian lubrication oil," he said. "Don't worry about it. It's specially designed for this kind of activity.

Loki was flopped, shirtless on his bed but eyeing Thor suspiciously.

"Not that," he said, pointing. "That."

Ah. Yes. _That._

"It's called a condom. It's nothing to worry about, it just prevents the spread of diseases. Like a sheath, you just wear it on your cock and we can't catch anything from each other. And clean up is a lot easier."

"No, I don't think so."

"Well, I'm afraid you don't get a choice, brother mine. Your contract with Jane dictates that we practise safe sex and this is what that means."

Loki picked up the little foil packet from where Thor had carefully laid it on the pillow as though afraid it might bite.

"That's what that means? I thought... I thought it meant no cutting or strangling."

Thor laughed and pulled his shirt off.

"Well, if you're not ready for it..."

Loki raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm sure if you can handle it, I can handle it too. Get over here. Let me touch you."

Thor carefully straddled his brother and let Loki run his hands over his chest and back.

"You're even better than I remember," he murmured, almost like he wasn't aware he was speaking.

And then his tongue was tracing over Thor's collarbone and his teeth were gently nipping at his neck. Thor could feel the harsh rush of air as Loki gasped through his nose.

His hands slipped lower, teasing over the waistband of Thor's jeans and struggling to handle the button and fly.

"Off," Loki said, nose against Thor's chest. "Take them off, I want to see you."

Thor made him kiss him properly first, all sinful glide of tongues and sucking lips.

Loki looked as though all his deepest desires had come true when he had Thor nude before him. He half wrestled him back onto the bed and loomed above him, hair cascading over his shoulder.

"Choose for me," he demanded. "I can't decide if I want to feel you jerk and whine around my fingers or get you to give me a show and do it yourself..."

Thor firmly placed the bottle of lubricant into Loki's hands. "You always were better at it that me."

Loki settled between his spread legs and set about breaking the seal on the bottle's pump. He ran his hand idly up and down Thor's inner thigh before finally squirting some of the thick liquid onto his fingers and pressing in.

Thor tried not to tense up at the sensation, biting back a whimper.

"Does it hurt?" Loki asked.

"No, it's just... I haven't in a long time."

"What, not even by yourself?"

Thor flushed slightly. "I tried once when Jane was out of town at a conference but it... It made me think of you and afterwards I felt so guilty that I haven't since..."

Loki looked up at him as though he'd just said the most arousing thing possible and slipped in a second finger. Thor jerked in spite of himself as Loki surgically sought out his prostate and rubbed over it. A third finger, carefully and gently stretching, and he was practically writhing for it.

"You're sure you're ready? I wouldn't want to damage you."

"I just hope you can keep up, brother. Such a long time without relief, you must be ready to burst..."

"I have hands, Thor. I do know how to use them, as you well know."

Thor managed to have the presence of mind to make sure Loki actually wore the condom. The way his eyes flickered shut suggested he rather enjoyed having it applied.

They both hesitated for a moment once Loki was kneeling between Thor's legs, cock rubbing over his wet flesh. There was a reunion here, something painful and special and longed for.

Thor leant forward to drag Loki fully on top of him, chest to chest for a moment, to lick his way into his mouth and just taste him briefly.

Loki drew away and slid his hand down between them, keeping his eyes on Thor as he tossed his head back. The stretch and the burn, so familiar in their strangeness, threatened to overwhelm him.

He had expected a brutal fuck, a heavy pounding, but as Loki rolled his hips, cautiously, biting just slightly on his lower lip, he knew that actually this would be more like their first times when they'd been afraid of breaking one another. One gentle move was followed by another and another and Thor wrapped his legs around Loki's waist to better arch to his rhythm.

The slow pace was made for kissing and stroking, finding new features on one another's skin. Thor started at the feeling of the exit wound in Loki's back where Kurse had almost killed him. Loki's hips stuttered when his fingertips brushed the scar in Thor's side from his own dagger.

By the time they were panting and thrusting together, wordlessly losing themselves in each other, Thor felt he could have sculpted Loki from memory. The delicious drag of Loki's cock over his prostate was pushing him towards climax, causing him to let loose a whine.

"I know," Loki said breathlessly. "I know, I know..."

He wrapped a hand around Thor's cock, the feeling simultaneously wonderful and abhorrent to Thor. He wanted this to last, last forever, but the drive to come was too strong for him to resist. Loki yelled above him and stilled completely.

They lay nuzzling each other blindly for a while before Loki cautiously pulled out and rolled over.

"Much as I hate to ruin the mood," he said. "What am I meant to do with my sheath?"

Thor flapped at him vaguely, trying to convey that he'd help in just a moment once his body felt able to feel anything other than warmth and satisfaction and post-coital sleepiness.

He could almost believe that everything would be alright as Loki ran a hand through his hair.


	21. Chapter 21

He must have slept once they were clean. He could hear the others having lunch when he woke, an unpleasant reminder that things were not normal currently and resisted the urge to join them. He would eat later.

He asked Jane to join him but she was too busy. Loki claimed he wasn't hungry and seemed content to be napping the day away. Apparently he still hadn't recovered from sneaking out of Asgard so often of late. Eventually Thor resigned himself to eating alone in his room.

He disliked being so secluded. It didn't suit him. He'd been lonely as a child in his plush nurseries, kept away from most other children, but at least there had always been people around. Loki for one.

Still, the gentle knock followed by Natasha at his door after dinner alone was something less than a pleasant surprise. Not because it was her, but because of her expression. He wasn't sure what exactly he could see in her face that made him concerned.

"Hey, you, treadmill battle, now," she said.

He followed her to the gym dutifully and ran for 30 minutes. Nothing but the sound of his feet hitting the belt and his own breathing. 

Natasha beat him and stood, out of breath, looking him over.

"Better?" she asked.

"What?"

"Do you feel better? Your friends aren't talking to you. You're feeling vague guilt towards both your lovers. You can't talk to anyone about it. Has a little workout helped? Endorphins and everything?"

"A little, yes. Not quite as much as learning at least one of my friends still wants my company."

She looked at him, as though surprised.

"Do you...happen to know what Loki's view on me is these days?" she asked.

"I haven't asked, no. Why do you ask?"

"Assuming no one was going to insult me for my gender or species or threaten to have me disembowelled, I was going to invite you both, and Jane, to a little film screening tomorrow evening. Stop the three of you being quite so isolated."

"We're not isolated. It's been two days."

"Well, I intend to prevent you becoming isolated then."

He hesitated. "He did try to take over your planet. And he killed friends of yours. And he tortured your... Clint. You don't have to be nice to him."

"I don't have to hold grudges either. He failed. We beat him. I could gloat, but I won't. Some you win, some you don't. But he's important to you and you're part of this team, so... I'd rather be cordial."

Thor nodded absent-mindedly and went to shower.

Jane's eyes flicked to his damp hair when he opened the door to their room. 

"So, you've..." she said. "But that's good. Good for you."

Thor tried not to sigh. Outside of the immediate triumph of getting what she wanted and the intellectual knowledge that she had agreed to this arrangement, he had the sense that jealousy was beginning to burrow into Jane's heart just a little.

"Just been to the gym," he said. "And Natasha wants to invite you and Loki and I down to watch a film tomorrow evening. If you're not busy."

"No, that sounds... That sounds nice."

It wasn't as though he was trying to avoid touching her, he just wasn't sure if she _wanted_ him to touch her. And she made no attempts at cuddling either, so Thor lay awake for a while staring at the ceiling.

He resisted the urge to check on Loki or to go sleep in his bed. He would be here next to Jane in the morning, the same as he always was.

She was looking at him in a curious and almost frightening way when he woke up. He felt as though she was sizing him up as a meal.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"Half past eight. Which means we have time."

He somehow managed not to grunt when she straddled his torso and knocked the air out of his lungs. The importance of making Jane feel wanted and desired flashed through his mind and he slid his hands under the back of her shirt.

The intensity of her kisses was unnerving, especially in his barely awake state. He was used to gentle, lazy affection in the mornings, but he let her tear his clothes off.

Sinking her teeth into his neck made him yelp though.

"What are you doing?" he asked, gripping both her wrists.

"Little bite?" she tried. "Playful little sex bite. I thought you liked that sort of thing."

"Well... You've never done that before."

"I didn't know you liked it before."

He groaned softly as she tried to justify herself.

"Well, Loki was really determined to have bites be allowed and so I figured that maybe you liked that sort of thing but didn't want to ask me. I've scratched you a little bit but maybe you wanted more..."

"Jane," she said firmly, planting a kiss against her lips. "I like being with you. It's you that I want. There is nothing you do or do not do that causes me any concern, or... Anything. Please, don't compete with Loki. I love you both."

It took a little while of kissing and stroking to calm her down, after which Thor felt he could have sex with her for the right reasons. Because they both wanted to and felt safe with each other. There was something honest about Jane's gasps. He'd never felt that she did anything other than what came naturally to her and he didn't want her to start trying to use sex as a performance just because Loki was in the next room.

Even with his arms wrapped tightly around her afterwards, he couldn't quite shake the feeling that something had irrevocably changed between them.

Maybe they could get through it though. Once everything had settled down.

He realised she was speaking to him and forced his mind back to the present.

"Hmm?"

"I said, come down to the lab with me. I need some of your blood."


	22. Chapter 22

Thor disliked needles. Not because they hurt, but because they _took blood_ and he'd been thoroughly frightened of such a thing by his childhood lessons on how dangerous it was to allow a magic user to have your blood or hair or any other part of you.

He was only moderately ashamed of how he'd attacked the first medical professionals he had met on Midgard. After all, how was he to know their intentions were good?

He allowed Jane to carefully withdraw a sample from him.

"Why do you need my blood?" he asked as she patted his shoulder for being good and sitting still.

"I'm going to test your blood and mine with some live samples of the parasite to see if sharing saliva with Loki, directly or by proxy, has given us the antibodies to fight it off, or whether in fact Loki is the only one. And," she said, turning to Loki. "I need more of yours while I try to figure out what the antibodies or whatever look like to see if I can have any hope of reproducing them into some sort of vaccine."

Thor glanced at Loki to see if he'd understood any of that Midgardian terminology and got a vague shrug in return as Jane rolled up his sleeve.

She jerked back from him suddenly.

"You're... You're bleeding," she said.

"Oh, again?" Loki sounded positively bored. "I thought I'd managed to stauch it."

Thor looked over in horror, concerned that someone, Clint most likely, had injured him.

There was a fresh bite on his shoulder, the blood trickling down his arm.

"Where did you...?" Thor began, as Loki huffed irritably.

"This is exactly why I didn't tell you. I knew you'd get all...protective big brother on me. Someone has to keep them away from our door and, happily enough, I am immune to their charms. I'm trying to earn my keep a little."

"But when?" Thor insisted. "You slept all afternoon after we..."

His eyes flicked to Jane, half-guiltily.

"No. You saw me asleep. That doesn't mean I was actually there. You needed to think you knew where I was, otherwise you'd have insisted on coming with me and you'd have been bitten and infected. If Jane manages to prove that you are likewise invulnerable, then by all means, come out and help me with the slathering hoards. Until then, please, remain indoors where you are safe."

Thor glowered at him.

"Right," Jane said. "OK, I'll get my sample and then you should go and see Pepper. She has the medical supplies and she'll bandage you or whatever."

"Pepper has the medical supplies?" Thor asked.

"Yes, Steve insisted after a little morphine went walkabout..."

Thor had to get Pepper. Loki wasn't allowed up to their floor.

She dealt admirably with Loki's complaints and fussing and claiming that he was fine and he didn't need any primitive Earth excuse for medicine.

Thor refused to let Loki out of his sight all day, occasionally reaching out to touch him to make sure he hadn't switched with an illusory version of himself. They read random books from Tony and Pepper's collection, though Loki was visibly furious and clearly not taking anything in as his eyes ran back and forth over the pages.

It was late afternoon, as Thor was beginning to think about retreating before dinner and eating in his room before they had their appointment with Natasha when Loki finally snapped.

"I just think it's a little bit rich of you to be angry at me for killing the humans. They barely are human anymore. It's hardly a moral judgement you can afford to make..."

"I'm not angry at you for killing them, I'm angry at you for putting yourself in danger."

"But I'm not in danger. I can handle unarmed, sick Midgardians. But you didn't let me finish, it's not a moral judgement you can afford to make when you turn a blind eye to what Jane's up to."

"What do you mean?"

"Unconsenting experimental subjects."

Thor frowned. "No. No, you agreed, you signed. And she can have my blood and it would be difficult not to consent to herself..."

Loki laughed bitterly and moved couches so he could lower his voice, even though they were alone.

"Where do you think she's getting live parasite samples?"

Thor turned to him sharply.

"From... From John, John the second. The body that you left on our doorstep."

"Ah, but she froze him and we established that freezing makes the samples unusable. But she has a living parasite larder, doesn't she?"

Thor shoved him back against the opposite arm of the couch.

"She... She wouldn't," he growled. "She would never use Darcy like that."

"It's perfectly understandable. She needs live samples and it's not going to harm her little friend."

Thor sat up slightly. It was true, Jane would be doing whatever she had to. He'd talk to her about it later. Maybe Loki was wrong, maybe she was keeping some alive artificially somehow.

"Of course, it is dreadfully convenient, isn't it?" Loki continued. "That when she realised her need for live samples, the least useful member of the household fell so tragically ill..."

This time he knocked Loki to the floor, barely resisting the urge to punch him.

"Don't even say such things," he said. "You don't get to imply things like that. You weren't here, you didn't see the state she was in."

"Tears aren't hard to fake, Thor. It's what I would have done."

"Well, she's not you!"

There was a polite knock on the doorframe. Thor looked up to find Sam Wilson standing there. He still felt like they'd barely met.

"Keep it in the bedroom, you two," he said. 

Thor glanced down, suddenly aware that he was straddling his brother and leaning rather close to his face and how they must look. He stood up hurriedly as Loki let out a pained little whine as though bereft at the loss of his weight. Thor was sure it was just to vex him.

"How's the search for Bucky going?" he asked as though nothing was strange. Especially as though Loki wasn't lounging on the floor behind him like a well-fed fox.

Sam leant back into the corridor to check their seclusion.

"Alright," he said. "But you know as well as I do, he's not here. I don't know where he is, but it sure isn't New York. But, if it keeps Steve happy and sane..."

Thor nodded vaguely.

"Yeah, anyway," Sam said. "Me, Nat and Clint are watching something tonight so I'm just grabbing a bite before that."

There was a moment of hesitation before Thor said, "We were also invited to spend the evening with her."

Sam looked up sharply from the fridge.

"Oh," he said. "Well. This'll be fun."


	23. Chapter 23

It was not fun. It wasn't fun when Clint spotted Loki and ran for the door, it wasn't fun when he discovered that Natasha had somehow locked said door and still had the key, it wasn't fun when he attempted to wrestle her for it.

It was a little fun when she won.

"OK," she said, in a low, dangerous voice. "This is what we're going to do. We are going to sit in the same room together and watch something gloriously mindless and we're all going to pretend that we are civilised human beings. Or humanoids, anyway."

"I'm not watching anything with that," Clint said from the floor.

"'That' can hear you," Loki said. "And isn't exactly relishing your company either."

Clint made another spirited attempt at getting up. Jane was looking at the ground. Sam seemed to be trying not to laugh.

"Would apologies help?" Thor asked, ignoring the murderous look Loki threw him.

"No," Clint said. "Violence might help."

"I told you," Natasha said firmly. "The only violence in this room is fictional."

"Tasha, he was going to make me kill you."

"I know. I heard."

"Well... Then... Why are you still sitting on me?"

"Because maybe down there you'll remember that once upon a time you were sent to kill me by someone else."

He squirmed. "It's not the same. You were different then, you were a threat. And I made a judgement call, which I wouldn't have been able to do when I was... Besides which, no one was going to triumph or gloat about you dying. He would have enjoyed it."

"Oh, I've graduated to a gendered pronoun, how nice," Loki said. "For the record, Barton, I wouldn't have made you kill her outside of an immediate combat situation. She's too useful. I could have relied on her to actually shoot straight when told."

"Not helping..." Jane said, quietly as Clint snarled again.

"Look," Sam said, all traces of amusement gone from his face. "Since I wasn't there or immediately affected, I'm pretty much a neutral figure here. I'm guessing that's why I was asked to come tonight. And, obviously, I'm pretty glad that Earth wasn't taken over and you all survived and all that. And I'm a bit of a strange, so I don't know how much weight my voice has for you, but the two of you should really stop. You never know when you might need each other's backs. It's a different situation. A different world, now. And we're all just trying to get by."

Loki seemed to consider his position. "I understand why you hate me, Barton. I did terrible things to you. But, for what it's worth, you were very difficult to keep under thrall. I...respect that."

"And you're sorry?" Thor prompted.

Loki looked away.

"He's only sorry that we beat him," Clint said.

"Well, exactly," Loki said. "I'm living among the very people who foiled my plans. I had an army and a measly five humans managed to best me? Five humans and my own brother? It's humiliating. If it were up to me, I would never see any of you again. But I'm here for Thor. I honestly bear you no ill will. I will endeavor to cause you as little inconvenience as possible and...I would be grateful if we could be indifferent towards each other."

It wasn't enough. Thor could see it wasn't enough, but it might do for now. Natasha helped Clint to his feet and let him sit down as far from Loki as possible.

The film was something about war veterans and helicopters. Despite the flimsy plot, Thor found it difficult to follow. To be fair, he was rather distracted as Jane was cuddling into one side of him while Loki softly caressed his thigh on the other.

He hoped that no one was noticing the latter in the darkness.

Especially not Jane.

When Loki tried to reach between his legs he had to grasp his hand firmly and force it away. Loki linked their fingers together as if that had been his plan all along.

Jane whispered in his ear, her lips just brushing the shell.

Loki rubbed his thumb firmly over his knuckles.

He genuinely wasn't sure if they were aware of each other, if they were competing, or if this was genuine affection from both sides. On Jane's right, Sam was sniggering softly, possibly at the action on screen or the situation around him. Natasha sat next to him with Clint leaning moodily on her shoulder.

Thor had never been sure if Clint and Natasha were lovers or not and didn't dare ask. Sometimes he thought they were, sometimes he thought perhaps they had been but were no longer. Sometimes they seemed like brother and sister, though given his own history that was still questionable territory.

The film seemed to be coming to an end and he realised with horror that the lights would soon be coming back on. And that he'd be seen with Loki holding one of his hands and Jane cuddling the opposite arm. He couldn't exactly shake them off, they'd both be hurt.

He would just have to weather the reactions.

So, naturally, Loki decided to lean in at the second the lights were switched on and whisper a suggestion of what they could do together when they were back upstairs and Thor could feel his face heating. He glanced down at Jane but she showed no sign of having heard Loki's words.

"Well, this has been a thing," Clint said. "But I'd like to go to bed now."

"We should all have dinner tomorrow," Natasha said. "And get used to being in the same home together."

Clint slumped slightly. "OK, fine, if I say yes will you let me leave?"

"Sure."

"Then yes, I'm sure that will be nice."

Sam patted her on the back as she unlocked the door. Thor was still flanked by Jane and Loki. It had been a long time since he'd had a lover on both arms. It was strange.

"Jane," Loki said in his best persuasive tone when they reached their floor. "I would very much like to have the pleasure of my brother's company for a little while. Would that be convenient for you?"

It was an expert play. Thor could see in her face that Jane didn't want to let him go, but she couldn't deny such a polite request without seeming clingy or as though she was going back on their deal.

"Not at all," she said, her smile not quite reaching her eyes.

She dragged Thor down for a passionate kiss before finally releasing him.

"I'll have him back to you in... Ooh, maybe an hour at most," Loki said.

Thor winced at the look she shot back at them from her doorway.


	24. Chapter 24

"That was cruel, Loki," Thor admonished him, closing the door.

"Was it? Then by all means leave. Deny what we both want and leave me wanting. Unless you've had an attack of nostalgia..."

Thor paused for a moment before pulling off his shirt and getting a condom out of his back pocket.

"Oh. Somebody's confident," Loki said.

"Somebody's prepared."

He draped himself half-dressed over Loki's body, letting himself forget the stresses and arguments of the day in his brother's lips.

"So my idea was well received, then?" Loki teased, bucking up to grind against Thor's obvious arousal.

"Remind me what it was?"

"Oh, nothing special. I just thought it might be mutually enjoyable if you were to lay me on my stomach so I can muffle my screams in the pillow as you pound me into the bed and pull my hair and remind me just how strong you are..."

Nostalgia was the right word for it. One of Loki's most successful seduction techniques in their youth had been to challenge Thor to wrestling matches that all too soon turned into something else. Thor had long suspected that sometimes Loki was in the mood to be overpowered and manhandled.

Their earlier fight had probably been an attempt to encourage this situation.

Thor calmly and slowly unlaced and unbuckled Loki's clothes like he wasn't affected in any way by impatient writhing.

Loki fought when Thor made to turn him over, entirely for the look of the thing, but equally allowed himself to be beaten. It wouldn't do to tire Thor out, after all.

Thor slapped his thigh, getting a growl for his trouble and reached for the bottle of lube from where it still rested by the bed.

He firmly laid his clean palm between Loki's shoulder blades and reached between his legs with the other, not caring for how cold it would be. Loki would be quick to put a stop to anything he didn't like.

Two fingers were accepted relatively easily, to Thor's surprise.

"Are you sure there hasn't been anyone else?" he asked. "You seem very pliable."

"Hands, Thor. My own, no one else's."

"Hmm..." he leaned forward so he could lower his voice even further. "It's just you've always behaved like such a whore for me, I find it hard to believe you've been so chaste."

Loki gasped and squirmed under his attentions. Thor never spoke like this and wasn't sure how it would be received. But the soft keens escaping from Loki's throat as Thor sank his fingers deeper suggested he hadn't gone too far yet.

"Do you think that you belong to me, is that it? You won't let anyone else touch you because you're mine?"

A thin moan.

"What's that?"

"No..." Loki managed. "I don't want them because they're not you..."

That made Thor falter slightly. That thought, the idea that Loki had had other options, other offers perhaps, had never been one he'd wanted to entertain. And the idea that he'd turned them down...

A slight kick from Loki brought him back.

"So you've just been taking care of yourself and thinking of me all this time?"

"Yes..."

"Then I should give you what you want, shouldn't I?"

Moaning and writhing.

"I was looking for an answer to that question, brother."

Loki turned his head to the side. "Yes. I want it, I want you. Please, Thor. Please."

He clawed at the sheets as Thor pushed in. There was an intoxicatingly familiarity about this, even gripping two handfuls of Loki's hair and forcing him to arch his back.

Once they'd got over the early days of their relationship and accepted it was something they both wanted, they'd tried a few things together. There had been good ideas, bad ideas, ideas that Thor would rather never think about again, but hair-pulling had become a bit of a staple.

"Is this what you wanted?"

Loki tried to nod, yelping as his hair was yanked back.

"Is it what you wanted?"

"Yes..."

"What you needed?"

"Yes!"

"Good."

He let go with one hand and moved it to Loki's hip, tugging until he was on his hands and knees. It gave Thor a wider range of movements and it didn't take him long before Loki was biting back moans, denied the comfort of the pillow. Thor increased the speed of his thrusts. The heat, the sounds, the feeling of once again being over Loki and taking him apart... It started to become too much. But there was no way Thor was going to fall first.

He reached around with his free hand to grasp Loki's leaking cock. Desperate whining accompanied sudden jerking from Loki, as though he couldn't quite control his motions.

"You close? You going to come, brother? You going to milk mine out of me?"

He felt the pulse in his hand as Loki's come spattered on the sheets. The clenching of Loki's body, shoved back down into the sheets, was enough to push Thor over the edge, barely resisting the urge to bite into his brother's shoulder when his climax rolled through him.

He lay fully on top of Loki's limp body and turned his head to the side so they could kiss, softy massaging Loki's poor scalp, hoping to let him know that he was loved and that Thor didn't mean the things he said during their play.

"Norns, I love you..." Loki said. "But you didn't... You didn't spill."

"Of course I did."

"Don't lie. I didn't feel it."

Thor laughed helplessly. "Sheaths, Loki, remember?"

Loki stretched a little until Thor rolled off him.

"Well, isn't that convenient? And in plenty of time too. I think this arrangement might just work out."

Thor freshened up in Loki's bathroom, through the wall from his own, and pressed one last kiss to Loki's lips before leaving. His brother seemed sated for now and didn't even seem bitter as Thor left for a different bed.

He wished he could believe it.


	25. Chapter 25

Jane cuddled close when Thor slipped into bed next to her.

"I thought you'd be sleepy," he said. "Long day in the lab, eventful evening."

"Yeah, but I wanted to stay up for you," she said, kissing along his jaw line.

He really hoped this was real affection and not brought on by unconsciously wanting to re-stake her claim on his body.

There was a horribly awkward moment coming and he tried to distract her by running his fingers over her skin. He couldn't hold her off for long though, her hand was insistently sliding down his body looking for where he was usually hard by this point in proceedings.

Her big sad eyes looked up at him and he squirmed uncomfortably.

"Jane, I'm sorry..."

"No, it's fine, it's fine. It happens to everyone, right?"

"If you give me a little time, it's just too soon for me to have...recovered. And I can still..."

She moved his hand away from her flesh. "I said it was fine."

She shut the light out but settled back in his arms. He wracked his brain for a way to ease the tension.

"Did you find out anything interesting in the lab today?" he tried.

She paused and sighed. "You and I aren't immune. There are some dead parasites in us, not many. Had they been live, it would have divided and spread and infected us. Whatever kills them doesn't transfer in saliva. Which is weird because I figured that maybe it's exclusive to humans and so maybe at least you'd be immune because you're Asgardian, but... I guess not."

"What do you mean, because I'm Asgardian?"

"Well, I thought that maybe it was affecting humans only and so you and Loki wouldn't be infected because you're from Asgard. But the live samples survived your blood and mine but not his."

Thor hesitated. It was potentially in Jane's interest to understand the full story of Loki's adoption. He'd never told her. He'd never explained Loki's attempts to destroy Jotunheim or any of the rest of it. It hadn't mattered and he hadn't wanted to dwell on it, and besides, Loki had attacked Midgard in the meantime which made him villain enough without all the rest of it. But maybe it did matter, maybe it would be the clue.

"Loki isn't Asgardian," he murmured. "My parents adopted him from another realm."

"He isn't? What is he?"

"Do you remember when we faced Malekith? That he called himself Loki of Jotunheim?"

She smiled sadly. "Most of my memories of that are visions of the destruction of Earth and you losing your hand and your screams when Loki... You know."

He held her close. It had been a difficult time for them both.

"There was a war, when I was a child over 1000 years ago, between Asgard and Jotunheim, which we won, if you can call it winning. My father found Loki abandoned, and realising he was the son of the king of Jotunheim, Laufey, he decided to raise him alongside me as his son in the hope of using him as a bargaining chip between the realms. A peace child, you know? A glorified hostage or maybe he would have one day installed him as a puppet king, I do not know."

"When he said Laufeyson, I assumed Laufey must have been... A noble or a distant family member or something. Not your enemy. What...what species is he?"

"Jotun. Or Frost Giant, we call them that as well. Jotunheim is an ice realm. Freezing and barren. And its people are giants. Not Loki, though. He must be some kind of throwback or anomaly..."

Jane thought about this carefully.

"Once he knew who he was, why didn't Loki go to his real family? His blood family, sorry, that's what I meant. You're his real family."

Thor kissed the top of her head softly.

"I think he did and they rejected him. He's too Aesir. He knows our culture and our history, not theirs. And he, er... He killed his biological father. Lured him into Asgard with promises of killing Odin and betrayed him at the last second. His logic was rather fractious at that time."

They lay quietly together for a while and Thor slipped into a troubled sleep, promising himself that he would make up for his performance issues in the morning.

He didn't even feel her leave and woke alone.

There didn't seem to be anyone around. He couldn't even find Natasha, which was odd. Eventually he decided to go to the observation deck and watch Jane work.

He was confused on his approach the lab when he saw that not only was Loki with Jane, but she seemed to have given him some kind of skin-tight lab suit. But his hair was still visible so he had to be wearing a mask or something...

Thor stopped in shock when he was close enough to see properly.

This was Loki's Frost Giant form. Blue skin with raised lines and red eyes. He was shirtless and Thor stood deadly still and watched as he shifted from blue to white and back again. He hadn't known that Loki knew how to do that.

Jane was taking some kind of readings from sensors she'd placed across his skin, possibly looking for some kind of temperature change that would have killed the parasites.

"But I told you," he was saying to her. "I didn't fight them in this form. I don't do anything in it. I hate it."

"Really? You don't use it at all? Any particular reason for that or is it just too weird still?"

"Maybe you don't understand. Thor and I grew up on stories of the Jotuns and their atrocities. They were monsters who had been vanquished righteously by our glorious army. Even when I tricked them into coming to spoil Thor's coronation, I cared nothing for their lives. They were vermin as far as I was concerned."

"You ruined Thor's coronation?"

"He hasn't told you? Yes, I did. He wasn't ready for the responsibility and no one could see it but me. And afterwards Thor went to Jotunheim looking for revenge and I thought the punishment for behaving so recklessly would be the cancellation of the ceremony. But instead Odin banished him to Midgard and I learnt about my true parentage and Thor met you and... Anyway, that wasn't my point. Why would I wear the skin that reminds me of what I was? A stolen child, my heart poisoned against those I should call family but forever divided from the people who claimed to love me."

Jane stood awkwardly still after this speech.

"But you use Laufeyson..." she said quietly.

"Better to be the son of a monster than the son of the fool who thought he could tame one. I have no interest in being associated with that house anymore, and Norns know they don't want anything to do with me..."

Thor tapped on the glass to alert them to his presence and Loki turned strange and blood-red eyes towards him.


	26. Chapter 26

An empty petri dish shattered against the lab window where Loki threw it.

"Get out, Thor," he yelled. "Get out!"

"Loki, wait..." Thor began.

A test tube this time.

"Thor, leave," Jane commanded, trying to shield her equipment. "Now!"

He retreated. But he'd hated hearing Loki speak like that. Like he wasn't loved. And why would he talk to Jane about how he felt? She was his rival almost. They weren't friends. Thor was his brother, and his lover, he deserved to know Loki's insecurities and fears so he could help...

He realised he was jealous of Jane when she'd just been an ear to talk to.

And where was he to go now? He had to find somewhere that he couldn't do any damage.

Darcy's cell would probably be a good place. It would be difficult to cause her any harm.

"'...Eduardo, chest heaving as she quivered before him. The strength in his manly arms carried her effortlessly towards the bed and he laid her...' Oh, Thor. We missed you this morning when Rhodey and Bruce set off."

Pepper lowered the novel she was reading from.

Thor sat on the floor outside the room.

"I didn't know they were leaving so soon. And our relationship hasn't exactly been as it was of late... What book is that?" he asked, desperate to change the subject.

"Er... 'The Spanish Prince's Mistress'. I like to read to Darcy after I've washed her hair."

"Is it good?"

"If you like this sort of thing. It wouldn't normally be something I'd read, but I find myself unexpectedly invested."

"Tell me it. Then you can keep reading once I'm caught up."

He listened to the story of the young serving woman, Mercedes, who was in love with the second son of the King of Navarre, which seemed to be a foreign part of Midgard. The prince, Eduardo, was married to another but returned the affections of Mercedes. He had her installed in his household as the chambermaid of his wife, Princess Carlotta. 

At the part Pepper had reached, Eduardo and Mercedes were about to consummate their passion. Mercedes was struggling to reconcile her feelings for Eduardo with her burgeoning friendship with the princess.

"Pepper," Jane said, running in. "Could you take my shift? I have a little something to... Thor!"

He leapt to his feet.

"Is he all right? Can I see him?"

She shook her head sadly.

"Well, he's stopped yelling and breaking things, but he's still pretty upset," she said. "And I'm just listening and trying to soften the effects of several centuries' worth of internalised racism but I'm sure it will be fine."

"But he was... He was beautiful like that."

"OK, well, when he's calmed down a little, maybe you can tell him that but for the moment just... Just stay away, OK? He didn't want you to see him like that."

She left and Thor settled down on the floor again.

"Do you want to...talk about this? Whatever it is?" Pepper asked.

He sighed. "No. I'm afraid it is a private matter. Please, keep reading. I want to know if Mercedes will go through with the act or remain loyal to Carlotta."

She restarted the chapter. Her voice gently rolled over him but he barely heard it.

On the one hand, he understood exactly what was going on in Loki's mind. They had been raised to fear the Frost Giants. Laufey was the monster in the dark that only their parents could vanquish. Learning that his little brother was the child of their childhood fear had been difficult for Thor. It must have been worse for Loki.

How could he demonstrate that nothing had changed between them?

Could he ask Loki to show him his other skin or would that made it worse? He couldn't deny being curious. Would his flesh be cold? Would the heat of Thor's skin do different things to him or feel strange? Would it feel different to lie with him...?

Pepper coughed. "Sorry, it's just.... It's getting a little erotic. Are you sure you want to stay?"

"Would it make you uncomfortable if I did?"

"A little, yes. Sorry, it's just embarrassing to read this kind of thing out loud in front of a man..."

He stood up and nodded to her through the glass. Retreating to his room seemed like a good idea. He lay on the bed, trying to make sense of this. They were having dinner with everyone tonight. It was important that they go.

He realised he could hear soft noises through the wall. Jane talking. He couldn't quite make out her words. Silence for a little while then Loki responding.

Thor briefly realised that this meant Jane heard him with Loki and Loki heard him with Jane. Maybe he should think about trying to insulate the wall slightly to muffle the sounds.

He was considering polystyrene when Jane put her head round the door.

"Oh, you are here," she said.

"How...?" he wasn't even sure what he wanted to ask.

"He's gone to fight the afflicted."

Thor sat bolt upright. "And you let him?"

She flopped next to him. "I suggested it. It's a productive outlet for his violent urges and I thought he could blow off some steam."

"But he's upset, he'll be distracted. He might be hurt."

"Thor, he's a murderous thousand-year-old being who happens to be immune to the disease that has wiped out a huge chunk of the population. He's not a child, he'll be fine."

"Do you really think we should be encouraging his violent tendencies?"

"Well. When the world isn't ending, we can enroll him in therapy. He can handle himself. And this way, hopefully he'll tire himself out before dinner and play nice."

He reluctantly put a hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you for talking to him. I think it was good for him to have someone else to talk to. Someone who isn't me."

"I feel bad for him. And then I remember that he tried to kill you several times and take over Earth and personally killed over 80 people because he could and they got in his way and put Clint and Erik under mind control... Kind of difficult to reconcile the two. I guess that's how you feel all the time."

"That summarises my feeling rather well, yes. I find it difficult to accept that someone I love is capable of such things. And then I wonder if I could have prevented it."

She leant her head on his shoulder.

"You can't blame yourself for the past. Just try to get through today."


	27. Chapter 27

Loki seemed calmer when he returned to the Tower and even stood still for Thor to check he had no fresh injuries. They very carefully didn't mention the events of that morning.

"Lots of people to deal with out there today," Loki said as though he was discussing the weather. "I'd have thought they'd be getting fewer as they starve and die off. A new batch must have escaped from somewhere."

Thor tried not to be concerned about this. To be honest he was more distracted by getting through Loki's first meal with the team.

He ended up sitting on one side of Loki with Jane on the other, like barriers. Natasha and Sam had hemmed in Clint and Steve. Only Pepper seemed remotely relaxed; Tony was already missing Rhodey and Bruce.

It was awkward. Pepper made valiant attempts at small talk and showed exaggerated interest in learning how the day's search for Bucky had gone.

"We had to kill afflicted. That was new." Sam said.

"Any sign of him then?"

"Maybe," Steve said. "There were fresh break-ins at one of the convenience stores. Definitely someone out there."

No one said anything. They were all starting to become concerned that Steve's distraction was growing more worrying every day. Only Clint seemed to be going along with it.

"How many live afflicted did you see?" Loki asked quietly.

There was half a beat of silence.

"About eight," Sam said, obviously trying for a neutral tone. "Had to take out three."

"Hmm. There's often up to five surrounding the building but I handled twelve today."

Tony frowned faintly.

"Where would they be coming from?" he said. "Unless another group of survivors had an outbreak."

"They might have been attracted by the helicopter taking off this morning," Steve said. 

Nodding. It didn't make much sense for them to be coming closer for no reason.

"Did Rhodey call to tell you they were safely arrived?" Pepper asked. "He said he would."

"Yeah. He's organising some kind of census type thing apparently. And Brucey is going to be working on electricity maintenance. A little below his usual skill level but necessary and I'm sure it'll make him very happy."

"You could stand to sound a little less bitter."

"...He could have worked on electricity maintenance here."

Thor was amazed. It wasn't exactly going well, but it wasn't going badly. Admittedly, Loki was allowing himself to slip into the background and making bus presence as inconspicuous as possible. Thor glanced sideways at him and noticed how tired he looked. It had been an emotionally and physically draining day.

But he was hopeful all the same. If he could gently introduce Loki's presence over a few days or weeks, maybe everyone would grow used to the idea.

Natasha caught his eye from across the table and half-smiled at him. She knew what she was doing, certainly. Before he knew it, they'd made it through and he was curled up in bed with Jane, nuzzling at her hair.

"You're going to get spoiled," she whispered into the dark.

"What?"

"24 hour cuddling opportunities? It will make your addiction even worse..."

He laughed against her and scooped her up, laying her onto his chest and kissing the very tip of her nose.

She squirmed ineffectively in his grasp, giggling until he captured her lips with his own, turning her mirth into a soft moan.

Her legs slipped down to either side of his waist allowing her to grind against him. He loved the cotton shorts she wore to bed. They let him run his hands up her legs without impediment. She was following the advice about shaving and seemed vaguely self-conscious about her tiny hairs. Thor quite enjoyed the sensation of them.

She leant up, supporting herself on one arm braced against his shoulder, lunging for the nightstand drawer as he slid her shorts off. 

"I'm sorry, I can't wait," she said breathlessly.

Her bitten nails caught his skin slightly as she tugged at the sweatpants he was using as pyjamas, leaving them caught around his ankles.

He lay slightly stunned as her hands moved over him, sliding the condom onto him and moving back up his body. He was content to let her take the lead, hands spanning the gentle curve of her hips as she carefully lowered herself. She swiveled and undulated gently, her breasts bouncing slightly as she sped up.

He sat up, wrapping his arms around her so her could swallow her moans. They ended up forehead to forehead, noses brushing together and sharing breath.

He let her work herself into a gasping, panting mess before having pity and moving one of his hands down between her legs. She jerked at the contact, nails scraping unconsciously at his back. He concentrated on the pressure and rhythm of his motions, relentlessly teasing her flesh.

Her thighs clenched around him and her mouth fell open into a silent yell as her climax overtook her suddenly. The ripples and pulses of her body were delicious but not quite enough to tip Thor over the edge and a needy sound escaped his lips before he could stop it.

Jane swung off him, causing another whine at the loss of her heat but wrapped a hand around his cock. She pushed him back onto his back with her other hand and deftly stroked him to climax, crawling up his body afterwards to kiss him, long and slow.

He disposed of the condom and fell back into bed and yes, he did rather enjoy being cuddled afterwards.

But never mind cuddles, keeping two lovers satisfied was beginning to seem like what would break him. Had it even been a week since Loki arrived? He genuinely couldn't recall. But at this rate he was going to be exhausted and good for nothing else before too long.

Then again, there were far worse ways to die.


	28. Chapter 28

Jane nudged him awake. 

"Don't get up," she said. "Just tell me more about Frost Giants."

"What do you want to know?" 

He was keeping his eyes closed. He didn't know what time it was and he didn't care to know.

"Loki vaguely said something about ice?"

"Oh. Yes, they can summon ice to their fingertips and grow blades of it from their very limbs. Their touch can cause frostbite instantly. I think it is a form of magic."

"Can Loki do that?"

"I have never seen him do so, no. Why?"

"I'm trying to figure out if he could have frozen the parasites, even accidentally. You said their realm is cold and barren, do they wear thick clothing or...?"

He frowned slightly. "No. No, traditionally they don't wear much. I think they are immune to cold somehow."

"They definitely aren't cold blooded then?"

"I don't think so. Loki certainly isn't."

He finally opened his eyes and saw that Jane had a notebook in her hands and was drawing a map of what she knew with several potential hypothesis.

She pressed a quick kiss to his lips before heading downstairs.

"If you see Loki, tell him I don't need him at the moment."

He made a vague noise of acceptance before rolling over and going back to sleep.

The rumbling of his stomach woke him up and he was merrily munching through muesli as combination breakfast and lunch before realising that it was strange that Loki hadn't come to wake him.

He wandered back along the corridor but found only a note on Loki's pillow. 'Defending the Tower, home soon.' No time, no nothing.

He heard the door clatter downstairs and headed down, speeding up when he heard raised voices.

"Get off me, put me down!" That was Clint.

"Calm down, man." That was Sam.

Thor half ran down the last flight of stairs to find the raiding team, still in their hazard suits, falling damply through the door from the cleansing room. Loki was with them, bodily carrying Clint despite being pummelled by his fists.

"What happened?" Thor said, bowl still clutched in one hand.

"He broke my leg!" Clint yelled.

Loki half-snarled. "You may have sprained your ankle when I pushed you out of the way to prevent you being attacked by one of Them. It was a snap decision which probably saved your life. You are welcome."

Thor found a chair for Clint to be carefully placed in. Sam knelt down to test his ankle, cautiously turning the joint this way and that.

"Why were you even there?" Steve asked.

"For whatever reason, there are more afflicted in the area than usual. I wanted to keep an eye on you. With good reason, apparently."

"We would have been fine."

"You would have been dead."

"I don't think it's broken," Sam said. "But you should probably rest up for at least a few days. Where do you want to go? Bed? Couch?"

"Couch. But I can't walk so..."

Thor pressed his bowl into Steve's hand and picked Clint up without a thought, ignoring his complaints at the lack of dignity.

"Get Natasha," he told Sam as he carried Clint into the lift.

Loki took the stairs.

"Wouldn't have even got me," Clint was complaining. "Would've been fine."

Thor didn't even try to respond, laying him carefully on the couch as Natasha came in.

"So, back in the wars, Clint?" she said.

He seemed soothed by her touch and examination of his swelling leg. Sam managed to find half a bag of frozen peas and stood clutching it until she gave a nod.

"Loki broke me," Clint said as though aware how petulant he sounded but not really caring.

"The way Sam tells it, he saved you."

"By breaking me."

Confident that Natasha would handle this, Thor went in search of his brother. Predictably enough, in a scene reminiscent of too many incidents from their youth, Loki was face down moodily on his bed.

He made no attempt at moving away when Thor sat next to him and gently stroked his still-damp hair.

"Shouldn't have bothered," he mumbled. "Should have let him get bitten."

"Hey," Thor said. "It's all right. No one's angry at you. I think you did a good thing."

Loki turned a scowling face towards him.

"Don't infantalise me, Thor. Let me burn off my anger. Stupid humans. Can't even take care of themselves. I don't know why you're so keen to help them, it seems a thankless task."

He planted his face back into the pillow. After a couple of seconds' hesitation, Thor slipped into bed and, when this met no resistance, wrapped an arm around him.

The mumbling continued, Thor catching little snippets about "fragile mortal bones" and "far better off when I was making his decisions for him."

He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder and craned his head around. Natasha had silently crept into the room.

"Come through," she said softly. "Clint wants to say something to you."

Loki huffed dramatically but shuffled through to the other room. Clint was looking at the floor as though Natasha had bullied him into this.

"Go ahead," she said.

"'M sorry that I said you broke me," Clint said, monotone. "It was an accident."

"And?"

"Thank you for not letting me be bitten."

Thor gently nudged Loki in the shoulder, intending it as a sign of affection, but Loki took it as a cue.

"I am sorry that you were injured," he said. "It was not my intention. I should have been more careful."

Clint looked up at that, apparently at war with himself.

"I've had worse," he said eventually. "Apology accepted."

Loki stared at his outstretched hand in disbelief and gingerly accepted the shake.

"Don't think this means I like you though," Clint said. "I'll admit you have your skills. But I still don't have to like you."

"That seems fair."

Thor struggled not to beam. This was a far more civil interaction than he could ever have hoped for. No explicit reference to past crimes or failings...it was almost too good to be true.

He was still half-reeling from how well the situation had been handled and wondering if he could get tips from Natasha on mediation when Jane burst into the room, out of breath from running up the stairs.

"Get everyone," she said. "I've figured out why Loki's immune."


	29. Chapter 29

Tony and Pepper were found and made to come down and listen to what Jane had found out.

"My first mistake was that I was looking for antibodies," she said. "It's not that at all. It's not something in Loki's blood that kills them. It literally is Loki's blood that kills them."

There was a long tangent where she explained what Frost Giants were, that Loki was one and the uselessness of the temperature experiments. Thor held Loki's hand during it. No one reacted in the same way an Asgardian might have. Jotun was not synonymous with monster in the minds of humans and Jane was carefully skipping over the war and potential political motivation of the adoption. To hear her, Asgardians adopted from other realms regularly. Loki still seemed deeply uncomfortable though.

"But you see, it shouldn't be possible to survive the sub-zero temperatures of Jotunheim without protective clothing unless the Frost Giants evolved to withstand it," Jane was continuing. "But if their blood was like ours, they'd freeze. Running hot wouldn't work. It's too inefficient. So I got thinking, how else could they not freeze to death? I've noticed that Loki has unusually thick skin, but so does Thor, so there had to be something else. And then I realised. Alcohol."

"Beg pardon?" Tony asked.

"Simply withstanding extreme temperatures wouldn't be enough. Blood can freeze. It's why we can freeze meat. But alcohol doesn't freeze and neither does Loki's blood. So I've done some tests and his blood-alcohol levels are far higher than they could be without consuming basically a whole bottle of whiskey. Therefore, as part of metabolism, his body is naturally producing alcohol."

"Hang on. Are you saying that Loki is always slightly drunk? Because that would explain a few things."

Thor had to admit that Tony had admirable resistance to death stares. Perhaps he had received a fair few over the years.

"No, for two reasons. Firstly, it's always present, so he's used to it. And secondly, it's not ethanol, it's methanol."

"Ah," Tony said. "That makes a certain degree of sense."

"Does it?" Clint asked. "As far as I can tell, you're all just saying words."

"Ethanol is booze, drinkable, slightly poisonous, drink too much you throw up and pass out. Methanol, on the other hand, is anti-freeze. Not drinkable, highly poisonous, makes you go blind and die. Loki's blood is poisonous. That's why it kills the parasite."

"Exactly," Jane said. "It stops the Frost Giants' blood freezing even when they summon ice to their fingertips but it doesn't make them overheat if they visit other realms. It kills diseases too, probably just a happy evolutionary accident."

"OK," Clint said. "How much anti-freeze do we need to have in our blood stream to be immune?"

Jane looked at the floor. "Unfortunately, according to my research so far, I think the dose necessary would kill a human. But it's a start, we've found two things that kill it, so it can be killed. It's just unfortunate that neither methanol nor freezing are conducive to human survival. But I have a starting point and an explanation and now I can really get going."

Everyone had evidently hoped she had a cure and were trying to disguise their disappointment.

"It's good, Jane," Thor said. "Well done. One mystery solved."

She smiled at him gratefully and blinked suddenly as though realising there was something wrong with the room.

"Clint, I'm so sorry. What happened to your ankle?"

"Minor accident," he said. "I'll live. Just won't be out on scouting for a few days, a week maybe depending on how bad it is."

Steve seemed crestfallen.

"I guess we could use a few days break," be conceded. "I don't really like the idea of just Sam and I out there in the open. Unless anyone else wants to come?"

Thor hesitated. He wasn't sure if he would be welcome. He was still pondering this when Loki spoke up.

"Assuming I'm no longer urgently needed downstairs, I could accompany you. Perhaps I could prove useful and make some amends for my past crimes."

Silence and staring. Sam broke the silence by laughing suddenly.

"Sorry," he said. "You just sounded like you were graciously accepting community service as punishment for trying to take over Earth. But seeing as you saved Clint today, I'd probably be fine with that. Steve?"

The pause was so awkward Thor thought his heart was going to burst.

"I guess. But a trial run. I don't trust you further than I could throw you and one little save doesn't change that. If I think you're up to anything at all I'll..."

He didn't seem to know what he'd do but the threat in the air seemed to be enough.

"Loki," Jane said softly. "If you find one, a live one, could you freeze it for me?"

It was rather rare to see Loki flustered.

"No. Why, why would you want that?"

She shrugged. "I'm curious what effect rapid freezing has on the human body. Whether it would be like low-budget cryogenics. If they would survive being defrosted."

Thor could almost see her thoughts whirling. She was thinking of having him freeze Darcy if this was successful, freezing the parasites to death and reviving the patient mostly unscathed.

"I don't know how," Loki admitted. "I've never tried."

"But Thor said Frost Giants could..."

"And how would he know? From a few skirmishes and stories? Maybe not all can, or maybe it's a skill to be learned not an instinctive act... There hasn't exactly been anyone around that I can ask."

"It would be cool though," Tony said. "You'd be the Ice Man. Get a glass of water, we'll try."

Loki stared at the offered tumbler doubtfully but obediently grasped it. He closed his eyes in concentration.

There was a brief flare of green, the familiar colour of Loki's magic, and the glass shattered in his hand, spilling water everywhere.

"OK," Tony said as Loki looked balefully at the shards of glass. "Maybe it is a skill, not an automatic thing then."

Loki shook off Thor's attempts to check his hand for cuts and shakily excused himself.

"I'm so sorry," Jane said. "I didn't realise that was an insensitive request. I figured he might have at least been curious about what his other form could do, even if he didn't want anyone to see him..."

Thor helped sweep up the broken glass. If Loki wanted space, it would probably be easier to give him it and try out soft words later.


	30. Chapter 30

Thor caught up with Loki in his room after maybe half an hour of letting him calm down. Somehow he'd managed to get hold of his book from a few days earlier.

"Are you all right?"

"Perfectly fine, thank you," came the response, Loki's eyes not leaving the page.

Thor sat down on the end of his bed and waited until his brother deigned to spare him a glance.

"Would you like me to talk to Jane and tell her that your heritage is not something you wish to discuss?"

He could have sworn Loki finished several paragraphs before replying.

"No. It's a biological fact, I should get used to it. Besides, she doesn't know any better. The humans have used lesser reasons as an excuse to murder each other pretty much from the beginning of their history, from what I've read."

"And what are you reading?"

"This one is a history of the war the Captain fought in. It's quite interesting. They certainly found imaginative ways to get around their lack of magic and strength."

Thor sat and watched him read for a little while.

"Was there something else you wanted, Thor?"

"No. Well...actually, I wanted to ask you something."

Loki lowered the book finally and Thor found himself transported back into centuries-old memories of stumbling over his words as he tried to ask Loki into his bed after a feast for the first time.

Not the first time he'd gone to Thor's bed, but the first time Thor had taken the initiative and asked.

He'd been laughingly turned down that night as he recalled, only to be woken in the early hours by Loki sliding beneath the furs and curling around him.

"Will you show me?" he asked quietly.

"Show you what? I'm sure no one will mind you borrowing the book after me. Then you can learn all about this partcular part of their recent history for yourself."

"No, not that. Will you change for me and let me see your Jotun form?"

"Why would you want me to?"

"Because... I thought you looked very inticing."

The book hit the floor with a certain degree of violence.

"You want to know what it's like to fuck a Frost Giant. You're sick. I thought it was bad enough that you wanted to stick your cock in humans, but this... Is it the exoticism that's getting to you or do you get hard thinking about how you can overpower and ravish the monster?"

"Neither. I love you and I'm curious about this side of you."

"Well, don't be, you'll just be disappointed. No one gets to look at me like that. For Norns' sake, I don't even look at myself like that."

Thor was genuinely surprised.

"You've not looked? At all?"

Loki bristled, bringing his knees up protectively.

"So Jane and I are the only people who have seen it?"

"You, her, Heimdall and Odin. And I suppose my birth mother must have seen me too. And I've seen my hands but that's all and that's all who ever will see me like that. I wouldn't have shown Jane if she hadn't had that wretched bit of paper that gives her free reign over my body. And you shouldn't have been there at all, you should never have seen..."

He was essentially talking into his thighs now. Thor laid a hand on the top of his head in what he hoped was a calming way.

"I think you should look in the mirror, Loki."

A bitter laugh. "No, thank you."

"But you don't understand. You're beautiful. Your face is so defined and the ridges on your skin... I would run my tongue along each of them. I want to taste the blue of your lips. Even your eyes, I always found the red frightening before but..."

Loki lunged at him, wrapping a hand carefully in warning around his throat.

"No amount of honeyed words are going to get you this fantasy. I will not change for you or for anyone. I suppose you'll have to get your perverted thrills elsewhere."

"Loki, hush..."

"Get out. Leave me alone. Maybe if you ask nicely, Jane will paint herself blue and suck an ice cube for you."

He opened his mouth to reply but thought better of it. He left as Loki retrieved his book from the floor.

For several days afterwards, he was banished from Loki's bedroom. He would wake up to find his brother already gone, out fighting the afflicted. They would see each other at meals but Loki always left first, his door firmly closed if Thor tapped on it.

Jane noticed his faint concern but could do little to alleviate it. For her part, she was frustrated the she couldn't find a poison that was lethal to the parasites but not humanity.

They spent many nights exhausting themselves with the help of each other's bodies. Thor had reached a point where he didn't care if Loki heard. In fact, he hoped Loki was lying with a pillow wrapped around his head trying to block out the moans through the wall. And then he felt guilty about it. After all, he'd been in the wrong, asking for something that clearly made Loki uncomfortable.

His days were spent in a vaguely rudderless way. He would carry heavy things for Tony. He would watch Jane testing chemical after chemical. He would sit with Clint while Natasha performed amateur physical therapy on his injured leg.

He even listened to the end of 'The Spanish Prince's Mistress' and had quite a spirited debate with Pepper over it. She felt the ending, in which Mercedes denied her feelings for the sake of the kingdom, was tragic and romantic. Thor had been certain that eventually Mercedes and Carlotta would realise that it was each other they had feelings for and would leave Eduardo altogether.

He wasn't enjoying the next book, 'Captured by the Highland Lord', nearly as much.

It was a Wednesday when Sam half-ran into the room and informed Thor that his brother was dangerous.

It genuinely took him a little while to remember that he ought to ask what Loki had been up to this time.


	31. Chapter 31

"I swear, he was out there in the open and I could see Them closing in," Sam was saying, babbling in an attempt to get it all out. "And I'm about to yell at him to run because they're getting so close and suddenly _another him_ runs out from behind me and everything is knives and squelching and he's laughing like he's having the time of his life... And I asked Steve about it and he was saying stuff about illusions and doubles and... I'm having trouble. I can deal with guys waking up from the '40s and I can deal with people looking like other people and I can deal with zombies at the door but I can't deal with people being in front of me when they're not actually there. Line's gotta be drawn."

No amount of explanation from Thor seemed to placate him. No stories of playing hiding games in the corridors of the palace only to watch Loki vanish in an instant convinced him that this wasn't terrifying. In fact, it seemed to make things worse.

"And I'll tell you something else," he said. "There are more afflicted every day. I'm getting scared now. I don't understand where they're coming from. They should be getting less and less, not more. If I wasn't so worried about Steve, I wouldn't be going out there at all."

It was troubling. Steve's search was becoming increasingly desperate. Natasha wondered aloud if they'd let it go too far.

"He's putting Sam and himself in danger," she said, letting Clint lean on her as he hobbled around the kitchen. "I'm starting to think that we should talk him out of it, but he's convinced himself now. I think...he'll either die or find Bucky and there's no other option."

"We all know Bucky's not out there," Clint said. "We've always known."

Thor sat with them as they decided they would talk to him seriously about giving up.

The intervention, as Clint called it, went about as well as expected.

Steve refused to listen to reason and even when Sam quietly admitted that he didn't want to be out there anymore, that the Tower was the only defendable position they had, he shook his head.

"Alright. Then Loki and I will go alone."

"You don't even like Loki," Sam said. 

"Yeah, but he won't flinch when things need done."

Steve left the room. Sam hung his head.

Apparently there had been a child afflicted on one of their more recent excursions. Its soft footfalls hadn't made much sound and it was upon them before they'd even realised, leaping snarling on Steve's back. And Sam had hesitated.

"A kid, you know. I just... I couldn't do it and I could see its little teeth trying to get through the suit and... Loki snapped its neck."

He shuddered. Thor felt sick. He left the others sitting in stunned silence and half ran to Loki's room.

He at least had the presence of mind to knock and not barge right in.

"Loki, it's me."

"Go away."

"No, I can't. I need to talk to you. Sam told me what happened with the child."

He fell forward as the door opened suddenly.

"And what? You want to comfort me for having to take the life of one so young? Look around us. We're surrounded by children, compared to ourselves. It wasn't even sentient. I'm fine."

His voice was steady but he couldn't meet Thor's eyes. He was visibly rattled by it.

"Don't go out there again," Thor blurted, looking for an excuse. "Please, it's not safe for Steve."

Loki laughed. "We may not have spoken much, but I've learnt a few things about the good and noble Cap. He is single-minded. When he wants something, he doesn't rest until he has it. I'm sure you know about his multiple attempts to get into their excuse for an army. If you tell him he can't go out, all you'll do is fan the flames. He'll start going at night and in secret and when he falls - which he will - none of you will know where he is. So either send him to his death or send me with him and maybe we'll both come back alive."

They were at an impasse. He knew Loki was right. Steve would not be so easily discouraged.

"While I'm here," Thor said as he turned to leave. "I am sorry that I tried to convince you to do something you didn't want. It was selfish and cruel of me."

Loki closed the door firmly behind him.

After that they started at least talking again. He still wasn't invited to Loki's bed and no amount of soft touches under the table seemed about to change that as, more often then not, his wandering hand was briskly shoved away.

Steve was very aware that his continued excursions were frowned upon and would deflect any discussion on the subject other than curiosity about what had been seen outside.

He also seemed faintly uncomfortable being alone with Loki, probably due to the latter's willingness to actively engage the afflicted rather than avoid them.

Thor caught himself selfishly hoping that eventually this would discourage Steve and drive Loki back inside and back to boredom and back into his arms. It was somehow awful for him having Loki close at hand but without the least intimacy. Sometimes he believed it was worse than when he had believed Loki lost forever.

He therefore truly couldn't believe it one evening as he was preparing for bed and waiting for Jane to finish writing down another day's worth of experiments when a familiar knock demanded entry at his door.

He knew it was Loki. There was a distinctive rhythm to his knocks which Thor had learnt to recognise centuries ago.

Loki thrust a book under his nose the second he opened the door.

"Look," he commanded. "Look at this."

Thor obediently gazed at the black and white picture. It showed a large cloud, circular, covering an entire city.

"What is it?"

"They call it a mushroom cloud, but it's what happens when the humans activate their most powerful weapon."

He began turning pages, showing Thor image after image of devastation, destruction and death.

"Loki, if you're trying to convince me that war is not a good thing to pursue, I'm afraid that ship sailed a little while ago."

Loki looked down at an image of buildings gutted and burned in an instant.

"This was the weapon they fired upon New York during the battle. They fired it upon their own people. We would both have died. All of us in the building would have died. Except Jane. And Pepper. And Sam."

Thor closed the book and tried to dampen his pleasure when Loki made no attempt to resist as Thor wrapped him in his arms.

"We didn't though. We're both here. We're both alive."

"I'm just thinking... There must be a reason the afflicted are coming towards us. What if they're being herded? If I was in charge and I had that kind of power in my hands, I would try to enclose the diseased and I would destroy them."

Thor stroked his hair. "The people in charge know we're here. And Rhodey and Bruce are in the new capital. They won't let us be killed. They would rescue us first."

Loki relaxed under his touch and turned his face up.

"I suppose you're right."

Thor wondered if he imagined the kiss against his lips as Loki slipped from his arms and retreated into his own room once again.


	32. Chapter 32

He'd tried apoligising. He'd tried seduction. Neither had worked. Thor decided it would be prudent to just wait and offer support and see if Loki wanted to come back to him.

It might have been easier had their situation not changed overnight a few weeks later.

Thor was sitting on the observation deck watching as Jane shook up yet another test tube of antibiotic solution.

Tony came running in demanding that Thor call Loki back from outside.

"Get him," he said. "Get him back, and Steve. Now."

"I don't know how you expect me to contact him," Thor said, confused.

"What, you don't have any Asgardian telepathy or anything? No brother homing magic?"

"No. Why do you need him back so badly?"

Tony beamed at him. "I need Steve because I just got off the phone from Rhodey and you won't believe what he told me."

"What?"

"No, come upstairs. Jane, come on, the results will wait for this news. I want everyone currently in the building."

Thor waited for Jane and they headed upstairs.

"So, what's up?" Clint asked, healed up but joining Sam in choosing not to go outside. "Have they found something that kills it?"

"Nope. They've found something else. Rhodey has Bucky."

They sat in stunned silence.

"He's sure?" Natasha asked eventually.

"It's pretty hard to mistake that arm."

It was like a miracle. They'd all begun to suspect that Bucky had fallen in the first wave of the disease. The idea that he was alive and well had faded from their minds.

"Where was he?"

"Washington. He'd gone underground, literally. They found him hiding out in a basement living on whatever cans of food he managed to scavenge from the houses above. He's a little malnourished but other than that, apparently he's fine."

Sam frowned slightly. "So Steve's gonna leave. He'll go to him, there'll be no preventing that."

"Nope, Rhodey's bringing him here. Something about assassins making people nervous, much better if he was among the Avengers who can look after him properly. Apparently our name still has some clout, even, or maybe especially, as the only official survivors still in New York city."

Steve couldn't form sentences when he heard the news, even more excited to hear that Bucky was coming to them and he wouldn't have to leave.

"I knew it," he kept repeating. "I knew he was out there."

None of them had the heart to tell him that his insistence on New York had been entirely incorrect.

It felt too good to see him smiling again.

There would be a few weeks before Bucky arrived. The team in Washington wanted to ensure he was completely healthy and run some tests to confirm that he wasn't carrying the parasites first.

Loki was distinctly less joyful at the prospect of another housemate but asked at dinner about the famous arm, which was continuously mentioned but never explained.

"He lost his arm in the war and Hydra fitted him with a metal one," Steve said, offhandedly. "Works pretty much the same as far as I can tell, just way, way stronger."

"So he's cybernetically enhanced?" Loki said.

"Woah," Tony said, looking up from his meal. "Big science words from the Ren Faire team. You have that kind of thing on Asgard?"

Thor saw it, the flash of fear in his brother's eyes that he'd revealed too much somehow. It was gone in an instant.

"No," he said, looking away. "I must have read it in one of your books. I just want to make sure I'm using the terminology correctly."

"OK. Yeah, I guess you could say it's like a cybernetic prosthetic from the descriptions I've heard. I'd love to study it, but I think he might have had enough of being a specimen to last him a lifetime."

Jane noticed that Thor was troubled when they went to bed.

"It's probably nothing," he said in response to her concerned questions. "It's just I know there's nothing about cyber... Cyber anything in the book Loki is reading."

"Maybe he's read more than one. Or maybe he heard it from Tony or whatever."

"Possibly. I just worry. I worry that he wouldn't tell me the truth if I asked. Or worse, that he would and I wouldn't believe it.

He lay awake long after Jane's breathing had become steady and sleep had stilled her comforting touches.

They got up at the same time, a rare occurrence these days. Normally Jane left him sleeping, but he wanted to intercept Loki before he went out.

He sat on the floor outside his brother's room like a snare. He was almost disappointed that Loki didn't seem remotely surprised to see him.

"I know what you're going to say, and I can't not go out," he said before Thor even opened his mouth. "I have to fight them off unless you want them to get in and attack the more vulnerable of our party."

"I wasn't going to try to stop you. I want to know how you know about the technology you mentioned last night."

Not even a flicker of recognition. "Like I said, I must have read it somewhere."

"Liar."

It was a magic word, Thor thought. The only word that he was able to use as a weapon against Loki.

The result was Thor being calmly grasped by the arm and led to the observation deck.

"Jane," Loki called. "Settle an argument. Are you or are you not harvesting your parasite samples from Darcy?"

It had slipped Thor's mind. So much had been going on at once, he'd forgotten to ask.

He watched as Jane's hand stopped in their motion. She looked up at them with eyes full of guilt.

Loki kissed him on the cheek.

"There," he said. "Now you have more pressing matters to attend to and I can take my leave."


	33. Chapter 33

Jane turned back to her work as Loki swept out of the room. 

"It's not like I'm hurting her, I'm just taking her saliva after we feed her," she said, defensively. "It's necessary to make sure she doesn't choke. I'm just using the byproducts, that's all. It's not immoral. It's not."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

She put down her current flask.

"Because it is probably unethical."

She picked up her work again instantly as though desperate to have something to do with her hands.

"It is unethical," she said. "Because I don't have her consent. Even keeping her alive isn't what she wanted, she didn't want to be stuck between living and dead and I... I did that to her so I have to fix it, I have to."

Her voice was becoming choked. "Modern medicine is based on ethically dubious foundations. They sold corpses for dissection in the 19th century without permission. Dig a little into the last hundred years, you'll find all kinds of horrible things. Eugenics and unconsenting tests... That's what it was all built on. What I'm doing isn't anything like that, I need the samples and they're not... It's not wrong, what I'm doing. It's necessary."

Thor hesitated. He didn't want to ask, but he had to know.

"And Darcy becoming infected was an accident?"

Jane looked at him for the first time since she'd started talking.

"What are you asking me? Are you asking if I deliberately allowed a friend, my best friend, who I have lived with and who helped me through my parents' divorce and a million failed funding applications, who followed me into the desert and looked after me when you... When you fucked off even though you said you'd come back and took any proof I had of the existence of wormholes with you, and I know it wasn't your fault, but I didn't know and she was there to help me through it... Are you seriously asking if I let that friend get sick because it was convenient?"

"No. No, of course not, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I never thought..."

"You did think. You thought and you suspected and..."

She steeled herself, shoulders square. 

" _He_ put that thought in your head, didn't he?" she asked, though she clearly already knew.

Thor nodded helplessly. He could hear Jane breathing shakily.

"I suppose..." she said carefully. "It must be hard to break centuries of habitually listening to his advice, no matter how bad. But maybe you should try to figure out what he's trying to distract you from."

"Cybernetics,"Thor said instantly.

She frowned. "Why?"

"I don't know. I just know there's something he's not telling me."

He left her in peace after that and only realised an hour later that she had expertly deflected his attention away from herself and back to Loki.

Perhaps he ought to watch out for how easily they both seemed able to pull his strings. He hoped she wasn't picking any techniques up from his brother. He wouldn't have a chance against the two of them.

A little independent research might be a good idea before Loki came home. If he knew exactly what cybernetics were, maybe he could figure out for himself where Loki had picked it up. And why he didn't want Thor to know.

He scoured the bookshelves for anything on the subject but couldn't find anything that looked likely. He knew he ought to ask Tony, but he had an awkward habit of not modulating his vocabulary to deal with the slight language barrier that sometimes arose for this kind of technical subject, and Bruce was no longer around to ask.

He decided he could also cover his tracks a little if he pretended to be trying to learn about Bucky before his arrival and sought out Natasha.

She explained as best she could about robotics and similar things. Thor came to understand that it was similar technology to the Destroyer, except instead of being a non-sentient being, it was attached to a living person and controlled by their brain.

Thor was certain he'd had at least one lesson on the Destroyer and how it worked, but schooling seemed several lifetimes ago. Sam, half listening to their conversation, laughed and told him that it was alright not to remember high school physics.

All he could think was that Loki had been planning to rebuild the Destroyer while he was ruling Asgard, but that didn't explain his knowledge of such unfamiliar terminology.

"Bucky is the only example of this cybernetic...ness?" he asked.

Sam nodded. Natasha looked more doubtful.

"On Earth, yeah, he's the only one I know about," she said. "But remember the Chitauri? How they sparked when you killed them? I think they probably had a little enhancement too."

Thor's heart thumped in his chest. He had it. That's why Loki knew, that's why he wouldn't say. It all made sense now.

Thor thanked Natasha for her time and went to sit on Loki's bed and await his return.

Despite the hours he had spent looking for information, it was a long wait. He dozed a little, tired from getting up so much earlier than normal and his troubled night, and enjoyed the scent of Loki on the pillows.

He read a little of the book about the war, Steve's war as he thought of it. He skipped to the chapter about Steve and his troop. It was clearly an old book and out of date because it listed Steve as dead. Thor read interviews and artcles about him with his former comrades, with Peggy Carter who Steve had mentioned sadly so many times, with Tony's father... It was strange to read about a friend in the past tense.

There were pictures too. Steve before the serum, Steve on tour, Steve with a variety of officials...

The first picture of Steve with Bucky felt like a physical blow. Although they'd been looking for Barnes, Thor hadn't seen a photo of him before. Steve didn't have one. He wondered if he knew there was one in the building right under his nose.

A strange feeling of sadness swelled in his chest as he looked at them, arms around each other's shoulders, laughing and comfortable. They seemed so very young.

He was so engrossed that he didn't notice the door opening until Loki spoke.

"It's rude to touch what's not yours, Thor..."


	34. Chapter 34

Thor sat up defensively.

"This book isn't yours," he said. "You borrowed it."

Loki walked across to him and lifted some locks of his hair.

"Look at these tangles... Are you trying to leave your essence here by sleeping in my bed so that I'll unconsciously want you again?"

Thor frowned. "No, I..."

"Well, there's no need. You're forgiven. I want you, come here."

It was a transparent distraction attempt but Loki pushing on his shoulder and making him lie back still threw him a little.

"No," Thor said, trying for dignity even while having his shirt unbuttoned. "No, stop. This won't work..."

"Won't it?" Loki breathed into his ear. "Because it always has before. Unless you don't desire me any more."

"Stop," Thor insisted, switching their positions and pinning Loki's wrists above his head. 

Loki gave a half-hearted struggle before sighing.

"All right, fine. Say whatever it is you're so determined to say."

Thor set his jaw. "The Chitauri had cybernetic enhancements. That's why you know the term."

"Well done, brother. We'll make a politician of you yet. What of it?"

That was not the reaction he'd expected. There was no anger, no lies. Just placid acceptance. An innocent smile greeted his interrogation attempts.

"Why..." he stammered. "Why did you lie about it if you don't care?"

Loki shifted his wrists slightly in Thor's loosened grip. 

"Because I felt reminding our dear fellow dwellers that I once led an army against them would be unwise. I was trying to be sensitive and delicate."

It made sense. It made so much sense. And yet...

"Why didn't you tell me, though? You knew that I would understand your reasons."

"Oh, that was just because I like to hide things from you. You make the most pleasing faces when you're frustrated."

Loki's face flickered between fearful and anticipatory as Thor retightened his fingers.

"I don't expect to remain _frustrated_ for long, brother."

A delighted laugh spilled from Loki's lips as he slipped from Thor's grasp and turned them once again, Thor's back hitting the mattress. They played at games of dominance as they undressed each other, grinning and growling and nipping each other's skin until Loki suddenly went still.

"I want to try something different."

The serious tone of voice made Thor pause even while his body screamed at him to finish tearing off Loki's clothes and take him.

"I think you'll like it, but you'll have to trust me."

He tried not to show his hesitation. Part of him feared that Loki had been hiding his anger and was going to punish him now for not dropping his interest in his secrets.

But Loki looked so small and lost that Thor melted almost immediately and pressed a reassuring kiss to his lips.

"What do you want?"

"I'm going to cover your eyes."

This was strange but Thor obediently sat still while Loki wrapped a layer of bandage around his face. Pepper had given it to him to tend his own wounds since he fussed over being nursed so much. They had talked of this kind of game often in their youth but had never managed to get round to it

There was a slight sigh from Loki that sent a shiver through Thor's entire body. He followed verbal instruction to sit back against the headboard and to spread his legs apart. He felt the bed dip and turned his face blindly to where Loki must be.

His hand was grasped and pulled steadily forward until he felt cool, firm flesh beneath his fingertips. Loki's grip moved his touch down until he felt a distinct ridge. A ridge that wasn't normally there.

He gasped and reached out with his other hand until he found Loki's thigh, feeling raised lines running up towards his torso like great long scars.

"Loki? Loki, you've changed..."

"Yes. Touch me. It's all right."

Thor ran his hands all over his brother's form, following lines and swirls up and down. Eventually his hands reached Loki's face, delicately tracing the thinner ridges there with the very tips of his fingers.

He almost drew back when he felt water under his touch.

"You're crying," he said, barely more than a whisper.

"So are you," Loki said, touching Thor's face in turn. He hadn't even noticed.

He felt Loki shift and move, felt his breath soft against his lips.

"They're good tears," he said. "I feel... I feel like I'm very precious to you."

Thor leant forward to press their mouths together, his hands unsure where to go and so going everywhere. Loki moved until he was sitting in Thor's lap, their arousal forgotten for this shared intimacy. His skin felt slightly cooler than normal, though not unpleasantly so.

And he tasted just the same. Thor ran fingers through his hair, feeling that the ridges continued even onto his scalp, and let his tears soak the blindfold.

Loki trusted him with this most vulnerable part of himself. There was no pretense here from either of them. No more games or ploys. He wondered why Loki chose today, why now, when they had been so distant that very morning.

He didn't care. Nothing mattered. Nothing except holding Loki close and making sure he knew that Thor would never willingly let him go again.

They might have sat that way for hours before Thor felt the shift. The ridges vanished like ripples on a lake mid-kiss and Loki's hands left their position draped around Thor's shoulders to untie the bandage.

He sat in his usual skin, legs wrapped around Thor's waist and eyes full of trepidation.

"Thank you," Thor said, not quite sure he could trust his voice. "That cannot have been easy for you. You're too good to me."

"Well, we both know that's not true," Loki said, his flippant tone not matching his tearful face. "But you're welcome. I... I have many concerns about the future and though I can't bear to have you look upon me yet like that, I decided that life was too short not to know what your hands would feel like on that skin."

"And how did they feel?"

"Warm," Loki said, looking away. "And reverent. And safe."

He let himself be pulled against Thor's chest. The touch was enough, hopefully, to convey that if it were up to him, Loki would never feel unsafe ever again.


	35. Chapter 35

They tangled together in the sheets. The moment had passed but Thor was belatedly realising that there were no condoms in Loki's room and thinking about getting a box to leave for convenience when Loki started speaking very quietly.

"They didn't trust me, you see. That's why they gave me the Chitauri. If the portal closed before I delivered the Tesseract, my army would drop dead. That was the arrangement. The second the machines attached to them lost contact with the command ship, they stopped. It was a safety measure, you see. I couldn't just get the Cube for myself and take the army and rule, I had to obey them. And if I failed, well..."

Thor lay still, waiting for the story to resume. It was the most Loki had ever spoken about the gap between his fall from the Bifrost and showing up on Midgard.

"He does it to his own children. 'Enhances' them. Makes them stronger or faster, gives them new and better eyes, but only if they obey him."

"And if they don't?"

"Well, they showed me some of their other toys too. Less adding useful parts, more removing necessary ones. You have to understand, Thor. They agreed to give me Earth because they thought it was funny. It amused them to afford a Prince of Asgard such a tiny realm, it amused them to give the humans' lives as payment. I amused them, with my pride and my rage and my demands. They thought me small, and next to them I was but they still knew not to trust me.."

"Who are they, Loki?"

"They seek many objects," Loki said as though Thor hadn't spoken. "And they said, 'By all means have the Earth, little Asgardian, as payment for your efforts. Enjoy it while you may.' And I thought that I was winning. I wanted Earth, I thought them brutish and stupid not to see its value. I thought my payment well above the effort required. That's why I sent the Aether away from Asgard."

His thoughts seemed disjointed and Thor saw that his eyes were closed. He seemed almost feverish, although his skin was cool. It was like his thoughts were spilling out of him.

"If I am dead, they can't find me."

"Did they hurt you?" Thor asked.

Loki frowned slightly before laughing. "No... They threatened me but... I was not worth torturing. I knew nothing, I _was_ nothing... My mind was empty and ready for them to show me the truth."

"What truth?"

Thor hadn't noticed their voices growing softer and more desperate and his own harsh whisper surprised and distressed him.

"Once there was nothing and soon there will be nothing again. And so we have to take what we can while we live. And none of it matters. You, me, Asgard, Midgard, freedom, captivity, life, death... We're dust, Thor. We're just dust."

He was scared now. He pulled Loki closer, planting his hand to the side of his throat to feel his heartbeat, fast and fluttering and terrified.

"Brother, what's brought this on? Why are you thinking this way?"

"I found them..." Loki said. "The monsters."

"What monsters?"

"The children. The once-were children. They had such tiny bones and such soft skin..."

It was like a dam breaking. Loki erupted in hysterical laughter and choking sobs, somehow both at once.

He convulsed with it, and Thor wrapped his arms around him, trying to still his jerks with little success. His attempts to comfort were not noticed.

Loki didn't even react when the door opened and Natasha entered, her face as afraid as Thor had never seen her in response to the screams which must have been echoing through the corridors.

"Help me," Thor begged, not caring that they were both naked. Loki was going to be injured if this kept up.

She grabbed at Loki's flailing legs, getting a kick in the face for her trouble. Had Loki done it deliberately, it would have shattered her cheekbone, but she held fast, helping Thor to hang on until the fit passed and Loki lay weeping and exhausted.

Natasha was an expert at keeping her eyes above the waist. Thor practically felt clothed, so little was her reaction to their nudity.

"What the fuck is going on?" she asked breathlessly.

It was rare to hear her swear. Her speech was very modulated, the product of years of training.

"Something... Something has scared him. I think... I think he had to kill children. He's not making sense."

Loki seemed unaware of her presence, clinging to Thor with sharp fingers.

Most of another hour passed in which Natasha attempted to feed Loki sweet tea or convince him to at least cover himself. He looked through her as though seeing another time, reacting to her voice as to a ghostly presence on the edge of hearing.

But he would answer her questions in mumbling tones in a way he wouldn't speak to Thor, even as he whimpered if his brother so much as moved in case he tried to leave.

They coaxed it out of him, little by little.

An army, he said, an army of children. The inhabitants of an orphanage or a class from a school, he didn't know. They had attacked all at once and he couldn't get his daggers in time, had to kill them with his bare hands.

Maybe twenty he had killed.

And after sitting among the corpses of the young, alone and scared, he had made his way home and tried to distract himself with sex and Thor and when that did not work, with his old fears of his blood and the beings he had met in the void but eventually the screaming in his had become too loud.

He exhausted himself eventually but Thor refused at leave him. Jane brought him clothes and food, kissing him softly of the cheek.

"Natasha told me," she whispered. "Her face as well. We're bringing the swelling down. Take as long as you need."

Thor awkwardly wriggled into the sweat pants she'd brought, but didn't bother with the shirt.

"I... I don't want him to wake alone," he said.

"Alright. I'll see you in the morning then."

She kissed him on the lips this time before practically tucking them in.

Loki sighed gently in his sleep as Thor settled in, wrapping him firmly in an embrace.

They actually spent the night together for the first time in years.


	36. Chapter 36

Thor woke up to find Loki lying deathly still but awake. His eyes flicked back and forth at nothing like a hunted animal.

"You must be starving," Thor said softly, running careful touches over his shoulder. "Shall we get breakfast?"

Loki nodded absently, grabbing Thor's hand as he tried to get out of bed.

"I can't go back outside."

"All right."

"But if I don't, they'll come for us and you will die."

His eyes shone with fear. Thor made up his mind.

"We will make a fortress of the building. We'll block the doors and barricade the ground floor so they can't get in. We'll be safe."

They used everything they could. Furniture, machinery, parts of Tony's car collection. By the end of the day, they were almost completely sealed in. Nothing could get to them. Loki still seemed wary though.

Jane was willing to give Thor up for a second and even a third night. She was trying increasingly dangerous methods to kill off the parasites now, going so far as to ask Tony if there was anything radioactive in the building. Like radio therapy, she said. There wasn't, though the potential line of inquiry was passed on through Rhodey to the government scientists. It was quite obvious that they were behind Jane in terms of research. Probably because they didn't have ready access to live parasite samples, Thor thought, guiltily. He still hadn't told any of the others.

Loki took to following him everywhere over the following days, like the shadow he so often compared himself to. Jane exasperatedly dragged a futon into their bedroom so Loki could sleep in the same room as his brother, which Thor was in equal parts grateful for and troubled by. Jane would not even be kissed while Loki was in the room, let alone held close or caressed and Loki was always in the room. Thor began to miss the taste of her.

Loki would sit outside the bathroom even, waiting for Thor to finish. They showered together, Loki standing passively while Thor washed his hair. He sat and listened to Pepper reading the story of the beautiful shepherdess Marion who was enthralled by the dangerous and brooding Lord Graeme and spirited from her home to his castle on the moors. At any other time, Loki would have mocked such a tale, but he sat in solumn silence as though listening to holy words.

Sometimes he would suddenly fall on Thor, tearing his clothes off violently, barely willing to be hastened to his room first. It was fast and harsh but it served to exhaust him. Only after these sessions did Thor manage to sneak away from Loki for a short time as he slept.

"It's creepy," Clint was saying, evidently not marking Thor's approach to the kitchen after one such time. "It's been nearly two weeks. I've seen Loki scared, but it wasn't like this. This is like he's died and his ghost is just hanging around."

"He was very upset," Natasha said. "Give him a few more days to recover, maybe he'll feel better."

Her face had mostly healed, though the bruise was still a dull grey showing slightly through her make-up.

"I guess. I wanted to see him brought down, but I didn't think it would be this sad..."

Thor walked into the room, pretending he hadn't heard anything.

Clint's smile was too bright.

"Bucky arrives tomorrow," he said. "New face, fresh blood. Looking forward to it?"

Thor was, actually. It had been too long since he'd seen anyone else. It would be nice to get some news first-hand from Rhodey too.

Steve insisted that they meet Bucky in small groups. He was afraid that everyone at once would overwhelm him.

He was a strange man, Thor thought. Jane spoke to him in her softest tones while Bucky looked at them untrustingly. He didn't even appear particularly sure of Steve, but he seemed to understand that here was home for now. He regarded everything carefully, as though unsure he could trust anything.

"So, what's it like out there?" Tony was asking Rhodey when they came out into the kitchen.

"Washington's fine," Rhodey replied. "Rebuilding's well underway. Even on the trip here, we didn't see any victims of the disease until we were almost in New York. It's like... It's like they're being drawn here."

"How?"

"I don't know. But you guys should consider moving to a quarantine zone. Afflicted shot on sight, no risk of unexpected attack."

"We can't move Darcy to a quarantine zone," Jane said.

"I still think some of you should, at least."

Tony shook his head. "No. We're a team. We'll make it."

"Or we'll die," Loki said.

It was the first time he'd spoken aloud around other people for days. Even when only in front of Jane in their room, he would whisper into Thor's ear if he wanted anything.

"Oh, hello," Tony said. "Are we back in the world of the living?"

"For now."

"Well, I hope you stay with us, Frosty the Snowman. You'd started to creep Pepper out a bit with the silent staring routine."

"I like her voice..." 

Loki sounded distant again, but at least he was talking. He blinked hard as though forcing himself back to the present.

"Are the afflicted coming towards New York as a whole or specifically towards this building?" he asked.

Rhodey hesitated. "I don't know. It hadn't occurred to me that they might be coming here. I suppose if they're attracted to the living... But that wouldn't explain why there are hardly any around Washington."

"Unless they're attracted to something else."

He hesitated, staring at the floor, clenching and unclenching his fists.

"Jane," he said, reaching out to her without looking. "Take me down to the lab. I want to see something."

Jane looked deeply concerned but let him take hold of her sleeve and walk out of the room clutching her.

Thor couldn't decide if he was worried that Loki seemed to have reached a state of utter hopelessness or relieved that he'd finally re-found his ability to leave rooms without his brother within grasping distance.

The decision was made for him when Loki reappeared by his side and dragged him away.

"We're leaving, Thor," he hissed as soon as they were out of earshot. "Get your things. We need to run, now."


	37. Chapter 37

He dragged Thor along to his room and started throwing clothes towards him.

"Take only what you must. We'll run, we'll head to Svartalfheim, Vanaheim, it doesn't matter. Asgard if you want. I can't believe I was so stupid..."

"Loki, stop. Tell me what's happening."

"They told me. They showed me them."

"What?"

Loki finally stilled. He sat down heavily on Thor's bed.

"Jane showed me the parasites weeks ago," he said. "And I found them strangely familiar but I couldn't tell why. One disease is very like another after all. And I don't think about that time, I never think of it..."

He finally looked up. "The people I met in the void. They didn't mean to tell me, thought nothing of telling me that they had the technology to build plagues. They could design them to attack certain peoples. It's complex but they can do it."

Thor hesitated. "You think this illness was...sent for us?"

"It makes sense. It can infect humans and Asgardians because they know you are here. An army failed because of you and your friends. But a disease cannot be fought in the same way. This is not a plague, it's a cull. They're coming for you."

"How? Loki, this is just your fear talking."

"But it must be. They are drawn to this place. The affliction started everywhere to weaken humanity and now it is hunting you down, you and your friends, and we have to leave, now pack."

"Then we'll move elsewhere on Midgard."

"Are you not listening? The afflicted are probably programmed to kill the six people who stopped Thanos the first time round. We have to leave Midgard entirely."

The fact that he even considered it made Thor's stomach lurch.

"No," he said. "I'm not leaving them."

"We'll take Jane with us."

"Not just Jane! I will not leave my comrades to die."

"Staying here is suicide!"

"Then I suppose we have that tendancy in common."

It slipped out before he could stop it. Loki flinched before launching himself off the bed and knocking Thor to the floor. They paused mid-strike, staring into each other's faces as they had so many times before in love and war. Loki slumped against Thor's chest.

"It was never worth fighting with you. You never _listen..._ "

Thor tentatively wrapped an arm around him.

"We will think of something," he said. "If you think you know the source, maybe you know something that will help without knowing that you know it. What weaknesses does this Thanos have?"

Loki went tense at the name and Thor knew for sure that he hadn't meant to let it slip.

"None," came the bitter response. "Not that I ever met him. Never saw him even. I wasn't worth his time."

They lay still for a while.

"Should we tell the others?" Loki asked.

"No. They would think it a trick from you. Or they would believe and accuse you of being the draw. It's what I would think, if I were them. We will tell Jane, and only Jane."

"Tell me what?"

She was standing in the doorway, not fazed at all by the sight of them embracing on the floor surrounded by discarded clothes.

Thor nudged Loki up and explained the whole sorry affair.

Jane didn't seem sure.

"OK," she said. "Biological weaponry, fine. But why? We sent the Tesseract away, why would they attack Earth again? They should be going after Asgard."

"The Tesseract is one of many objects they seek. The Aether is another, that's why I sent it away. But it is possible that another rests on Earth. And rather than send an army, they're exterminating you from afar."

"Bruce left. If it's targeting Avengers, Bruce should be facing attack too."

"Then perhaps it's seeking someone easily spotted on Earth. The sweet scent of Aesir flesh. After all, there are few Asgardians on Earth these days, not difficult to find."

Thor frowned. "You think I'm putting everyone at risk."

"Yet another reason that we should leave."

He wasn't sure. It seemed plausible enough, but Loki was desperate. He would say anything to make Thor follow him across the realms. This could all be a ruse or a lie. He couldn't be sure.

"A month," he said. "One more month and if we are no closer to a cure then I will flee with you."

He didn't like the look in Jane's eyes as she carefully left the room. It was somewhere between calculating and resigned. He wasn't sure what it meant.

He felt a little guilty keeping this possible truth from his friends. Then again, they would be even more distrustful of anything coming from Loki than he was.

Watching Steve with Bucky made his mind up for him. It was his first meal in his new home. Rhodey was going to stay for a few days to make sure the transition went smoothly. The food was clearly unfamiliar but he ate with the grasping intensity of a hungry child. It was endearing in a strange way.

They had enough to deal with without possible lies from Loki. When the month was up, if nothing had changed, they could steal away in the night. He would take Jane, he decided. He wouldn't leave her here alone. And she would understand, in time.

Guilt panged through him thinking of Darcy. He had almost made peace with losing her. They had been without her smile and jokes for months now. Part of him had become resigned to never seeing her alive again.

He was distracted from his thoughts by hearing Bucky speak for the first time, asking for a refill of his juice. At first he thought the group's surprised reactions were merely in response to hearing up utter a sound but soon realised that he had addressed Natasha in her native tongue.

It just served to remind him the he was different. He and Loki both. The all-speak allowed them to understand and be understood for most words, technical terms notwithstanding.

He perfectly understood the quiet conversation between Natasha and Bucky and politely pretended he didn't hear the questions about 'the big one, the scary one and the little soft one'. He definitely pretended he didn't hear Natasha's careful explanation of their arrangement.

Maybe it would be easier for everyone when they left.


	38. Chapter 38

The banging started a few days later. 

Just one or two throughout the morning. At first Thor thought it was Bucky in the gym. He'd liked being able to move around the Tower freely but it wouldn't have been surprising if he was able to accidentally break things with the Arm.

Steve had asked Thor to keep an eye on his friend a little. Bucky was spending most of his time with Natasha, clearly enjoying the privacy of being able to speak with her in Russian and not be understood by most of the others. Steve continually asked Thor what they were saying. Most of the time it was nothing of consequence, just little questions about everything and nothing.

He got the distinct impression that Steve was jealous of Natasha but also glad that Bucky was making a friend. As such he was torn between happiness and envy in a deliciously painful blend that Thor knew well from his youth watching Loki learn seidr with their mother. He'd wanted to monopolise both of them, even as he chastised himself for it.

The bangs became more frequent as the day went on, nearing constancy, and Thor decided to investigate, surprised to find that they were coming from the ground floor.

Clint was sitting by the bannister.

"It's Them," he said, not looking round. "They're trying to get in."

Sure enough, the steady thumps were recognisable as the sound of a body slamming against glass.

"It's like they can smell us."

Thor didn't respond. He couldn't see if any damage was being done. The heavy materials they'd dragged against the windows would surely stop anything getting far.

The sound echoed. The dull thud of flesh on glass was interspersed with toneless moans, just the afflicted's breath catching in their vocal cords as they gasped with exertion.

Jane finally came back to his arms that night. Even though Loki's attack of fear seemed to have passed, he showed no sign of wanting to move back to his own room. In fact, he moved the futon closer, letting him take hold of Thor's hand when he let it dangle off the edge of the bed. He spent the first few nights when the building was under assault like that, Jane clinging and trembling by his side and Loki waking intermittently and touching his hand, as though scared he would vanish.

In the mornings Jane would creep silently away. She was becoming ever more quiet and withdrawn about what she was doing in the lab. Tony thought she was running out of ideas. Thor was suspicious that she hadn't but daren't ask what she was doing for fear that it was something unthinkable. If she wanted to tell him, she would. He was concerned that she wasn't eating properly. Her ribs were starting to protrude from her chest.

Loki got into the habit of crawling into bed with Thor when she was gone, contract be damned. Thor could be weak in front of him. With everyone else, he felt an obligation to be stoic and unflinching. In the mornings though, he could flop and let the tears flow and feel Loki's fingers carding through his hair and listen to his brother murmuring the number of days until they could run and planning their escape out loud.

"Only 26 days, Thor... Only 25 and we'll be safe... We'll steal some of Pepper's sleeping tablets to make sure Jane doesn't wake until we're far away... Just 22 days left... 20 days, we'll go to Alfheim first, it's pretty there, no one will know us..."

Just because he listened didn't mean he was agreeing with Loki's ideas.

At fifteen days to go, they were woken by Clint screaming.

Thor leapt out of bed, Mjölnir flying to his hand from where she rested on the table.

"Wait here," he said, voice gravelly from the night and not comforting as he had hoped.

He glanced back once to see Loki gently pulling Jane back from where she was clearly trying to follow him.

Natasha was advancing down the corridor in the opposite direction, Bucky and Steve flanking her with Tony descending from the upper floors.

"I saw one!" Clint insisted when they reached him. "I wanted to look down at them so I just eased back the paper covering the second floor window and boom! Face to face with one."

"How?" Natasha said. "Have they learned to fly?"

"I don't know, Nat. Maybe they're forming a human pyramid."

"They're not smart enough to do that..."

"Hey!" Steve said suddenly. "Bucky, get back from there."

None of them had seen him go, but he was looking out of the corner of the window.

"They're climbing on the fallen," he said.

"What did he say? Nat, what did he say?"

"We need to get to the roof," she said.

"Thor?"

He looked at Natasha. She minutely shook her head, so he said nothing.

They half-ran up the stairs, Steve visibly concerned as Bucky casually walked to the edge of the building and pointed down. Clint sidled up beside him and instantly vomited at the sight.

Thor was afraid but knew he had to confirm what Bucky had said, though the smell was unmistakable.

The Tower was surrounded by a ring of corpses, afflicted who had tried to get in and died in the attempt, bludgeoning themselves against the glass. More were trying to reach the building, walking unheeding over bodies. The one Clint had seen must have made it up the pile.

"Tony..." Steve said, eerily calm. "How strong is the glass on the first floor and above?"

"It's just glass. Not as strong as the ground floor. Sorry, I didn't exactly expect to have people trying to break in there."

"Right. Right, OK. Does anyone have any ideas?"

"Burn them," Bucky said.

"No, the whole building will go up," Steve said, confirming for Thor that he was speaking English.

"Acid, not fire."

"Tony, you got that much acid?"

"Not since the '80s, kids," Tony said, distractedly. "Though... I think Robocop is on to something. Anything that will break the bodies down is our friend."

"Like what?"

"Well, what breaks down tissue other than acid? Heat and time. We don't have time, but heat we've got. Thor, my man, god, whatever. You've got lightning. Fry 'em. Char them down."

Steve hesitated. "But that will attract more."

"Look down, Steve. They're already here."

Thor waited until he got the nod from Steve before raising Mjölnir and filling the air with the scent of burning flesh.


	39. Chapter 39

"What happened?" Loki demanded when he stumbled back into his room. "You're exhausted."

The amount of lightning he'd had to use had drained him rather. It had taken him most of an hour to lessen the mass of bodies and the stench had made him a little lightheaded. Jane was sitting hugging her knees but jumped to her feet to help him. He ended up on the bed with Loki kneeling on one side and Jane on the other. In different circumstances, he'd consider this paradise.

"I had to... I had to burn some bodies. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Jane and Loki made eye contact over his body, a frightening action from where Thor was lying. They seemed to be wordlessly conspiring.

"I'll take care of him," Loki said. "Don't worry. Do your work."

Jane seemed hesitant, but it was clear she also didn't want to miss a day in the lab. She pressed a soft kiss to his lips, face full of concern, before leaving.

Loki waited until her footsteps had faded before closing the door and making a start on easing Thor out of his clothes.

"I'm so tired... Just let me sleep, I'll be fine."

"I am going to look after you and you are going to be good for me and not moan about it."

He rolled Thor gently from side to side, looking for burns. When Thor had first started to use lightning in his adolescence, he'd often accidentally singed his own hair or skin. Not for years though. He still felt grateful for the care Loki was showing and the fact that his hands were pleasantly cool.

Thor gazed upwards, suddenly wanting to kiss away the little frown on Loki's face and tried to lean up only to be pushed back down.

"You can barely walk. Lie still and I'll get you some water."

"I don't want water, I want you."

Loki slapped him gently on the chest.

"Water first."

Thor stretched his arms out across the empty bed when Loki headed for the kitchen. His muscles tingled with traces of the energy he'd had to absorb. Even the mild warmth from where Jane had been sitting felt hot to him. Contrasting sensations seemed strangely heightened.

Loki supported his head and tipped water into his mouth little by little.

"You'll thank me later," he said.

"I could thank you now."

He wasn't sure what was driving him on, whether it was the exposure to death or half-memories of Loki tending his wounds after tournaments, but he wanted his brother close. They'd barely touched since Loki regained himself after the incident with the children, apart from nighttime brushes of hands.

Loki smirked at him, running a hand across his stomach. 

"I thought you were sooo tired..."

"Not if you do all the work."

"Don't I always?"

Loki lay down, resting his head on Thor's shoulder and seemed to be ignoring even the most plaintive little whines and head nudges.

He let Thor work himself up to desperation before relenting and rolling on top of him, still wearing the t-shirt and over-sized sweat pants Thor had given him to wear as pyjamas.

"All right, but no complaining. And no getting over excited. I said I'd look after you. I'm not having Jane blame me if you're not fit for anything all evening."

Thor was finally permitted a kiss and decided to take a mile with his inch and shove his hands under Loki's shirt. He was quickly denied this indulgence.

"My rules today and I say it stays on," Loki said firmly.

Thor slid a hand down between them, seeking where he knew Loki would be just as hard as he was.

"You can't keep your clothes on forever..." he said.

He should have known that was a silly thing to say, especially when Loki simply grinned at him and started to shuffle down the bed.

"There's more than one way to skin a cat, as they say here..."

It seemed an unnecessarily violent phrase and Thor was about to ask if Loki was sure that's what they said when the familiar feeling of a tongue ran up his length, killing the question in his throat and turning it into a low groan.

"You see?" Loki asked, breath huffing over Thor's flesh. "I can stay quite happy, dressed and dignified."

Thor managed to form a response about relative dignity, but it was quickly banished as Loki gently sucked the head of his cock into his mouth.

The _heat_... Every nerve in his body was screaming at him. He could feel random muscles twitching beneath his skin and moaned as Loki lowered his head, eyes dancing at the sight of the mess Thor was in.

He wanted more and reached down to tangle his hand in Loki's hair and ease him down further.

Loki yelped suddenly and drew back.

"I'm sorry," Thor said breathlessly. "Too fast?"

"You stung me!"

Thor frowned. "Not unless I've developed barbs without noticing..."

Loki scrambled back up the bed, ignoring Thor's needy sounds at being abandoned so, and took hold of his hand, turning it back and forth. Eventually he seemed to steel himself and tangled it in his hair.

Thor felt it this time, the jump of a spark from his hand, leaping from his flesh and earthing in Loki.

Their eyes met in a moment of confusion.

"That's new."

"The lightning... It's still in my veins. I normally get rid of it all, I forgot... It must be trying to get out and caught in the static from your hair."

"Do you think... Can you make it spark from your other extremities?"

"What do you mean?"

Loki's eyes flicked down and Thor laughed.

"What, you want me to try to earth it through my...?"

"Why not? We might as well have a little fun with it."

"But it might... It might hurt you."

"Don't be ridiculous," he dropped his voice to a whisper. "I'll get undressed for you..."

That did it. Thor took advantage of being 'too exhausted' and enjoyed watching Loki shuck his night clothes and open himself up. It could only have been the work of a few moments but it seemed an age before Loki was sitting astride him and rocking gently as he became accustomed to the feeling of being filled.

"Go on," he said. "Do it."

Thor concentrated. "I'm not sure how..."

"Don't be ridiculous, brother. You do it all the time."

"Yes, but not through my cock. Usually it's by my hand, and through Mjölnir..."

He tried again, drawing the energy together in his core and pushing it down, little sparks flashing through the hairs on his abdomen.

Nothing.

"I can't. It's like there's a block."

"Or a sheath..."

Loki dismounted and brought his hand down to the base of Thor's dick where the condom clung to him.

"I think it's insulating you. Can I take it off? We're already having sex in Jane's bed. How much angrier can she be?"

Thor hesitated but nodded, wincing as the tight plastic was ripped from his skin. He groaned when Loki rejoined with him. It felt different.

"Try again."

The current raced through him and Loki screamed above him.

"More... More, again, do it."

He wasn't sure how this could be pleasurable but anything that made Loki move and writhe and yell and _clench_ like that was something he wanted to encourage. He let the lightning out in little bursts, varying the intensity and length of them until Loki collapsed on top of him, utterly spent and moaning as Thor finished himself off.

Loki kissed him through the last shudders.

"How..." he said, short of breath and half into Thor's mouth. "Did we get to this age without ever trying that before?"

Thor was too exhausted to even try to respond.


	40. Chapter 40

Loki was not best pleased when Thor felt up to moving a little while later and made him help with changing the bedsheets. It was one thing to have sex in Jane's bed, it was another to let her unknowingly sleep there.

She seemed faintly suspicious by the time evening rolled around but since she was falling asleep into her dinner, she probably wasn't prepared to call them out on it.

Everyone was exhausted. The others had apparently spent much of the day trying to reinforce the first and second floor windows. Furniture was becoming a little thin on the ground.

And still the banging echoed upward from the continued assault of the afflicted.

Jane practically fell into bed.

It was worrying actually. Thor cautiously wrapped an arm around her and got no response. He pulled her closer and got a faint moan, but not like Jane's normal sleepy moans when he'd woken her. This sounded pained.

He gently shook her shoulder until she opened her eyes.

"Are you all right?" he whispered.

She half-smiled up at him. "Not really. But I will be. We'll all be alright. I promise."

This wasn't right. Jane wasn't supposed to offer him salvation like this, like all the weight of the world was upon her tiny shoulders. She was just meant to be.

He was meant to take care of her.

She snuggled into him and moved his hand away from where he'd automatically started to run his fingers through her hair.

"Just hold me," she said. "I'm tired."

She was still there in the morning. At first he thought he'd woken up early. Then that she'd just slept in. Jane hated being late for her work so he reluctantly tried to wake her.

His heart thumped hard in his chest when she didn't rouse immediately. He tried to find her pulse and breath, but found his hands heavy and cumbersome.

"Loki... Loki!"

A groan. "What is it?"

"How do you tell if a human is alive?"

"Why?"

"Because Jane won't wake up."

Loki half-vaulted onto the bed at Thor's increasingly panicked tones and flapped him away. It went against everything in his instincts to let Loki touch her but he moved aside.

A hand on her neck, fingers against her lips.

"I think she's breathing."

Jane's eyes flickered open and she let out a small panicked squeak at seeing Loki looming over her.

"See, she's fine," he said as Thor gathered her to his chest.

"I thought I'd lost you."

He ran his hand over her head, eyes widening as some of her hair came away in his fingers.

"Jane... Jane, you're sick."

"I'm not sick," she insisted. "I'm making myself better."

Her voice was quiet and strained.

"What did you do?"

She half-heartedly pushed at his chest until he lay her down. He had to lie next to her as she started speaking to hear, her voice small and laboured. Loki hesitated before settling in on her other side. She didn't seem to object.

"Have I ever told you about Max von Pettenkofer?" she asked. "The German chemist?"

"I don't think so," Thor said, lost.

"He was a very smart man but he made a mistake about cholera. He thought it wasn't waterborne and it is. As part of trying to prove that it wasn't, he drank a cocktail of it. He didn't get sick, he was immune from elsewhere. His assistant almost died."

"Jane, what have you done?"

She turned her face towards him.

"I had to test it on somebody..."

She haltingly explained her reasoning. Dead parasites and dead bacteria did not produce antibodies because there was nothing for the body to combat. Loki had no antibodies because his body hadn't fought off the disease as such, his blood was just an inhospitable environment.

Therefore, in order to be immune, the body had to fight off the infection itself.

"They divide fast," she said. "Even one in your bloodstream is enough, it will divide and divide and spread. So I needed to stop that happening."

She paused, taking great gulps of air.

"You weren't this sick yesterday," he insisted. "You can't have gotten so sick in such a short amount of time."

"It's been a long time coming. I hid it from you. I knew you'd try to stop me. But you've been so busy and occupied, I could hide it. Make you think I was just tired and scared. It's a cancer therapy. It inhibits the dividing properties of cells. Also works on the parasite according to my research. None of the samples I tried with it divided, but the parasite remained alive. So now my body can fight it and learn to kill it."

"Jane, what are you telling me? What are you saying?"

"I started the treatment over a month ago, way more quickly than you're meant to do it but... Now it shouldn't be able to get me. But the chemicals make me sick and... Well, fast dividing cells include hair follicles, I'm afraid."

She absent-mindedly pulled a chunk of hair away from her head, like it didn't matter.

"The last part of the treatment has a single parasite in it... I have to take it today, my body should fight it off and develop antibodies..."

Thor shook his head desperately.

"You can't go to the lab. You're too sick."

"I can. I just need to rest for a moment, then I'll be fine."

"No. I won't let you."

She stared up at him, eyes full of betrayal. He watched with horror as she turned her head away.

"Loki," she breathed. "It's the sealed flask in the fume cupboard. Get it for me."

Loki hesitated. Then he nodded and headed for the door. Thor didn't want to leave but he lunged after Loki only a moment later. He had to stop this.

He half-tackled Loki into a wall.

"Stop," he said. "Stop, stop..."

"I'm doing what she told me to, like a good lab assistant."

"She'll die."

"She might not. Maybe she's right. Maybe this is the way she kills it."

Thor drew back.

"You _want_ her dead," he accused. "You want me all to yourself."

"How dare you? This isn't about you and me, Thor. This is about believing that Jane knows what she's doing. Have a little faith in your lady."

"No. No, she'll die."

"She's human. She is going to die, we have talked about this. So you can force her to stop her research and make sure that she hates you for the rest of her life, or you can let her do this. And if she's wrong... Then we take her body and we run, tonight. The others will form their own conclusions. But if she's right, she's about to save all of humanity. You owe her the chance of that. It's her right to do this."

He shoved Thor away and ran down the stairs.


	41. Chapter 41

Thor followed Loki as though in a dream, catching up as he exited the lab, flask in hand. It looked frighteningly ordinary. Just like water.

They spirited it back upstairs, suddenly aware that any of the others would stop them carrying anything out of the biohazard room.

"Needles," Jane said when they reappeared. "Bottom drawer."

Loki dug them out from the night stand, hidden beneath old scientific periodicals.

"I stole them from Pepper's medical supplies," she said to Thor's unasked question. "By the time she notices, it'll be done.

Thor felt as though he was trapped in a nightmare now, watching as Loki slithered into the bed behind Jane and held her up against his chest. She rolled up her pyjamas sleeve, revealing a pattern of bruising from needles.

He hadn't seen, he hadn't _known_...

He'd thought her sudden shyness about her body was because of Loki's proximity, not because of anything else. Not because she'd been slowly killing herself right under his nose.

Loki gripped her upper arm, applying enough pressure to allow her to find a vein and inject the solution into herself. Her head rolled against his shoulder.

"What now?" Thor asked, finding his voice at last.

"Now I try to recover. And in a few days or a week, I'll expose myself to the parasite. And my body will have developed the necessary antibodies and will fight it off, and I'll live."

"What if it doesn't? What if you don't get better? What if it infects you anyway?"

"Then you'll have to kill me, I expect."

He couldn't handle this. He couldn't.

He was distantly aware of Loki huffing as he fled, taking the stairs two at a time to get to the roof. The fresh air hit his lungs in time for the first sob to escape.

His inarticulate cries were still echoing out over the dead city when the door clunked shut behind Loki.

"Really, Thor. Is this how you want to spend what are possibly Jane's last hours?"

"Leave me!"

A soft touch to his shoulder. 

"You have lost too many people by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Go to her and make her feel safe. She's scared witless. Be with her and watch over her and who knows? Maybe that will be the support she needs to get through this."

Thor managed a few shuddering gasps.

"I can't lose her..."

"You haven't yet. Go to her. I'll tell Natasha that Jane is a little sick and you're looking after her. No one will disturb you."

His feet were heavy, like he was walking through water. Every step dragged.

Jane gave him a smile when he opened the door. He tried his best to return it as she patted the empty side of the bed. He wasn't sure if Loki had tucked her in or if she'd managed to pull the blankets up herself, but he lay down on top of them.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I've scared you."

He took her hand, twisting until he could rest two fingers against her inner wrist and feel the steady, familiar, reassuring passage of her blood.

She closed her eyes, sighing gently like she was just sleepy.

"Talk to me," she said.

"What about?"

"I don't mind. Just talk. Your voice is nice. Tell me about Asgard. Good things."

He told her about his childhood. About his earliest memory, being fussed over in preparation for a diplomatic visit from Vanaheim, being told to look after his brother and how proud he was to have such responsibility.

About being led into the weapons vault and shown many things and how Mjölnir had called to him and he'd known she would be his.

About listening to stories at his mother's side about distant realms and long dead heroes and hoping they would tell stories about him one day.

He didn't leave her side for three days. Loki brought them food. Even though it made Jane sick, Thor encouraged her to manage what she could.

Apparently Loki was spending his time reading and finding partially willing company in Natasha and Bucky when they weren't helping with the ongoing reinforcement of the building. He relayed Jane's explanation of her illness to them, strange words that Thor didn't follow about virus and stress.

He lay awake at night, long after she'd fallen asleep, wondering how he would cope without her. And he missed the presence of a hand touching his in the dark. Loki was giving them space and had retreated to his former bedroom.

Eventually, on the fourth day, Thor reached the part of his life where he was banished to Earth.

"That's about it. You know all the good things from then on. You were there for a lot of them."

"You didn't talk about you and Loki much," she said.

He noticed that her voice was almost normal today.

"No, I thought it might be... It might be awkward for you to hear about that so I left it out."

"Hmm... I suppose so."

"You sound better," he said, trying to change the subject.

"I feel better. Better than I have all week. Better than I have since the ulcers."

"Ulcers? What ulcers?"

"Oh... About a week after I started the experiment, I got these awful ulcers in my mouth. That's why I wouldn't kiss you for a few days. You didn't notice because it coincided with Loki's little turn so I made excuses and got away with it."

He frowned slightly. He didn't think he liked how easily Jane had hidden this from him. How easily she'd lied to him... For good reasons, but still.

"I feel a lot better today. Almost good enough to go down to the lab."

It hit him in the stomach. He'd been so concerned about keeping her alive that he'd forgotten the second part of this.

"Not today," he said. "Wait one more day, please, at least. You can... You can tell me more of your life. Tell me about growing up on Midgard."

He settled in to listen to her voice, determined to have her safe at least a little longer.


	42. Chapter 42

He managed to keep her a further two days before she insisted on being allowed to finish her work.

"You're still sick," he tried.

"I'll be exhausted for a long time, but I'm not throwing up any more. So I'm ready. As ready as I'll ever be and I want to do it, today."

He groaned. They'd talked about this. A plan to get to the lab without anyone seeing her and noticing her almost bald head. Loki would go ahead, making sure the route was clear.

Thor found him watching something with Natasha, Bucky, Steve and, unexpectedly, Clint. He laid a hand on his brother's shoulder and jerked his head. They left the room silently. No one seemed suspicious.

Jane's feet were still unsteady, Thor supporting most of her weight. He'd had to help her to the bathroom over the last few days. Part of him was glad to be able to help her. The rest of him was concentrating on resisting the urge to stop this immediately.

Nothing happened to impede their process. Loki went with Jane into the lab. It was strange to see her behind the glass without any form of protection but considering what she was about to do, maybe it didn't matter. 

"Press that button," she said, pointing before falling into a chair.

Loki pressed it for her, jerking his hand back afterwards.

"OK," she said eventually. "Er... 11:47 am... What date is it?"

None of them knew. It hadn't seemed important to keep track.

"Right... Anyway. Present are Dr Jane Foster and Loki Laufeyson. Thor Odinson on the observation deck. This is Stage 2. About to swallow... 15ml solution containing 10 specimens of the as-yet unnamed parasite. Results expected in approximately 7 hours."

She didn't bother to knock off the recorder as she sent Loki to the sample cupboard to fetch a specific jar.

Her hands shook when she took it, whether from fear or sickness, he wasn't sure.

She raised it to her lips.

"Wait," Thor said. "Wait."

"What is it?"

"It's just... I love you."

She smiled at him. Sometimes he wanted to see nothing else.

"I love you too."

She knocked back the liquid and swallowed hard.

For a few moments, none of them breathed.

"Well, what now?" Loki asked.

"Now we wait. We wait and see if I turn into one of Them. And if I don't, we take blood samples and we see if the specimens are destroyed. And if they are, then... Then I guess it worked. And then we can tell the others."

"How are you going to explain how sick you are?"

"I'm going to tell them the truth. It's not like I can hide it."

Loki nodded and Thor could practically hear his brain whirring, trying to figure out what he would have told them in her place.

"Do you need anything?" Thor asked.

Jane had braced her arms against the surface in front of her, looking tiny and helpless. She was too sick to do this, still, he should have stopped her...

"Erm... No. I'm just glad you're here. I can't believe I was going to do this by myself."

He thought of that, of her sitting alone down here, waiting to find out if she was right or not. Waiting to see if she'd make it through. He thought about finding her too late and shuddered.

"If I was wrong," she said. "You two need to destroy the recording and take my body and run. The others will never forgive you if they find out you knew and didn't stop me. They'll never forgive you for leaving either but... I think they'll understand. And I don't want anyone to know that I was wrong."

She laughed, though it quickly turned to coughing. Her eyes seemed haunted and afraid and he wished he could go in and hold her.

The hours dragged by. Jane occasionally relayed her symptoms and sensations to the recorder. She felt tired, but no more so than she had of late. She was cold too. It pleased Thor more than he felt was possible when Loki gave her his shirt without prompting. There was something there, maybe not caring, but a certain degree of respect, Thor thought. A little recognition of bravery perhaps.

The fabric would have drowned her normally and positively swamped her wasted form.

"When this works," Thor said, banishing his fear and his doubt to a distant corner of his mind. "What happens then?"

"I need to... I need to make a vaccine. Because... Because this route with the chemotherapy works on me, but I'm a healthy young woman, no underlying health issues or anything, but it wouldn't work for the elderly or children or anyone who is sick. Herd immunity can only work when a vast majorty of the population are treated. And, of course, then there's the accompanying risks, the infertility and everything..."

"The what?"

She sighed deeply. "It's probable that I won't be able to have children as a direct result of this technique. I'm not sure I wanted them anyway and certainly not in... In the mess the world is in right now. Hard times are coming no matter what and... I don't think I could put a child through that. I did think long and hard about it."

"You... You didn't talk to me about it."

"I'm sorry. It's my body though. I decide what happens to it."

She was right. Of course she was right.

"Anyway," she said. "The point remains that it won't be suitable for the population at large unless we have a massive ovum freezing thing for procreation and that's... Well, it's possible, but I think a vaccine would be better."

She was resting her head against her arms now, pillowing herself.

"I'm tired," she said. "I'm going to sleep. If it goes wrong, I'm sure you'll know. If it goes right... I'll see you in a little while, I guess."

She closed her eyes. Loki put a flask in front of her face. The faint condensation advancing and retreating across the glass confirmed her breathing.

Thor managed to sit in such a way that he could still see it. He didn't even notice Loki leaving the lab until he flopped down at his side to watch the minutes tick by together.


	43. Chapter 43

It was agony. Thor nervously fiddled with the edge of his shirt until Loki laid a hand on his and stopped him.

There was still an hour to go before Jane's set deadline. Thor hadn't experienced an hour so seemingly long since the death of his mother.

He was aware that his brother was speaking to him but he couldn't understand the words. Loki left and returned a short time later, plates of food in hand.

He made Thor eat, tearing off little chunks of toast and pressing them between his lips. Thor chewed and swallowed mechanically, barely tasting.

The very second the time was up, he leapt to his feet and tapped on the glass.

Jane sat up with a start, knocking over the flask.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Not great," she croaked. "But it looks like I'm OK."

He wanted to hold her and confirm to himself that she was, indeed, real and alive and safe, but had to content himself with resting his hand against the glass as though reaching for her.

"So we can tell the others now," he said. "We can stop lying."

"Not quite yet. I need to run some analysis and confirm that it worked. Basically I need to see if my body managed to fight them off or not by seeing if there are more than ten in my bloodstream. They don't divide at room temperature, but my body heat should have been ideal."

He didn't like seeing her stick yet another needle into her arm. She was already covered in too many marks. The treatment make her skin weak, she said.

The analysis took far longer than Thor expected. Loki went off and found his book for a time, occasionally showing Thor some of the more interesting pictures. Interesting to Loki anyway. Thor was focussed on every move Jane made as though she might vanish if he looked away.

After an age of staring into the twin lenses of her microscope, she punched the air.

"I think... I think it worked," she said. "I think it worked."

"You think?"

"They seem to have divided and then been destroyed. So I'm immune. But I won't know if I'll be able to make a working vaccine until..."

She trailed off and stood up decisively.

"Get everyone. I need to talk to them."

There was a certain degree of anger from the assembled group. That Jane had been so reckless with her own safety, that Thor had concealed it from everyone once he knew. No one seemed surprised at Loki's involvement, though Thor thought perhaps that they suspected he'd been encouraging Jane's disregard for herself.

"It needed to be done," Jane insisted, zealous in her conviction. "I had to do it."

"I just have two questions," Clint said. "Firstly, what's your plan for the next step? Secondly, would it be weird for you if I touched your head? Because I really want to."

She leant forward and let him run a hand over her bare scalp.

"I think I can make it work. We take some of my blood and add samples to it and then flush then through a microscopic sieve, weakening them but not killing them, then inject those into someone else and, in theory, their body will develop antibodies and they will become immune too."

"In theory?" Steve asked.

She sighed. "I need to test it. On someone. To see if it works. And... Whoever does it needs to be exposed to the disease in the...wild."

"You want them to go outside? And let themselves be bitten?"

"I know, it sounds crazy but..."

"It is crazy."

"I'll do it," Thor said. "Test it on me."

They stared at him.

"I can go outside," he insisted. "Loki can come with me. And we'll test it."

Jane hesitated but Loki glared at him.

"What will happen if it goes wrong and you get infected?" Clint asked.

"Then Loki will kill me," Thor said firmly. "He's the only one who is allowed to kill me."

Perhaps it was cruel to throw Loki's words back at him, but Thor was determined now. He would be the one to take the risk because he trusted Jane. This way no one else would have to do it.

He looked around the room, daring them to challenge him. Admittedly no one seemed comfortable with the arrangement, but no one seemed to want to speak up.

Loki left the room without a word. Thor gave Jane an apologetic look but she waved him away and he ran off in pursuit.

"I'm sorry," he said to the darkness of Loki's room, the door swinging shut behind him.

"Why?" Loki's voice came back at him. "Because you suddenly have a death wish? Because you'd rather put yourself in danger than risk the life of a human?"

"That's not why I'm doing it. I trust Jane with my life."

"And me with your death."

He blinked and walked forward blindly, reaching for the edge of the bed.

"I trust you to be with me in my most fearful hours, like you have been before."

"Not always on the same side."

Well, that was certainly true, but he wasn't going to admit it. He found the mattress and sat on it, reaching out to where he thought Loki might be, fingers closing around nothing.

The knife at the back of his neck made him shiver.

"This is what I'll have to do to you," Loki whispered. "I'll have to push right through your flesh until your body lies bloody and motionless beneath me. It will be the disease that kills you, not me. I'll just take care of the corpse..."

"You won't have to," Thor said, voice betraying no nerves. "The solution will work."

He spun round, knocking Loki's arm away with his wrist and wrapping his other arm around his waist, dragging him down. There was a thud as the knife hit the floor and Thor felt safe to move without fear, tipping Loki back onto the bed.

"I don't want to lose you. Not like this."

"You won't. I promise."

Despite not being able to see, he could tell that Loki didn't believe him.

They shared a biting kiss before Loki shoved him away and told him to get out.


	44. Chapter 44

"Is Loki alright?" Jane asked as Thor helped her to bed.

She'd managed to eat most of dinner but she'd had a taxing day and he wanted her to get an early night. 

"Don't worry about him," he said. "Don't worry about anything except recovering."

She cuddled close to him, soft and delicate but looking at him steely-eyed.

"I don't want you to do it either," she said. "I don't want to risk you any more than he does."

"I trust you to be right. Besides, if it weren't me, it would be one of the others. Who would you risk?"

She frowned and tried to roll away, ending up staring at the ceiling.

"That's not fair."

He kissed her temple to placate her a little, carefully running a hand up her body and over her chest.

Jane sighed and arched slightly. 

"Don't try to distract me," she said. "I'm still upset."

"Do you want me to stop?"

She huffed. "No."

He bit back the chuckle that threatened to escape his throat and sat up slightly so he could lean over and kiss her properly.

"I thought maybe you wouldn't want me because..." She ran a hand over her bare head.

Thor followed it with one of his own.

"Of course I still desire you," he said. "You're my Jane. My strong, clever, wonderful Jane. But you're too sick still for... For that. You need to conserve your strength."

She did not seem to like that, but let him continue his caresses, skimming over her flesh like butterflies and pressing chaste kisses to her head and lips.

The soft sound of her breathing soon evened out and soothed Thor into joining her in sleep.

There was a familiar flutter in his chest the next morning. It took him a while to realise that it was the anticipation of an approaching battle singing through his veins.

He left Jane sleeping while he made breakfast, proper hot and wholesome breakfast.

"How are you going to get out?" a voice asked to his left.

He barely recognised Bucky's tones. It was still rare to hear him speak out loud and not in a whisper.

"I'm sorry?"

"You're going outside to test the vaccine. How will you get out? We're under siege. The doors are barred, the building is surrounded... I'm amazed there's still food, though I think it's coming from above..."

"I'll fly down and fly back up," Thor said. "I can...do that kind of thing."

Bucky didn't seem to think that an unreasonable answer.

"Good luck," he said.

Thor made a mental note to ask where the food did come from. He hadn't ever really thought about it. It came automatically someone said. Maybe Bucky was right, maybe little unmanned airships brought it. Or maybe it came underground through the basement. Or maybe Tony just had many supplies. He wasn't sure.

Somehow he managed to carry three plates away and carefully placed Jane's on the night stand where she would easily find it.

It was difficult to open Loki's door with an elbow. He only got a scowl in response to his appearance though.

"A last meal, Thor?"

He stood and waited for Loki to sit up before handing him the bacon, eggs and toast he'd prepared.

"No," he said. "Just breakfast. Getting our strength up for going outside."

Thor had never seen such aggressive chewing before. He sat on the end of Loki's bed, waiting for his anger to dissipate in the face of his own lack of conflict.

"So I assume we fly down," Loki said eventually. "And you let yourself get nibbled on and I kill them and then what?"

"We fly back up."

"And what if we can't? What if you can't? What if I have to kill you and I'm stuck down there?"

"That won't happen. But I suppose scream until Tony flies down to get you."

Loki's fork skittered against the plate.

"What do I do when they don't come?" he asked quietly. "What do I do when they leave me to die?"

Thor was horrified. Was this his concern? That they would abandon him if Thor was not there?

"That won't happen," he said firmly. "They wouldn't."

"Why not? It's not like they need me. Even if I scream for the Bifrost, I am dead to Asgard and have long been so. Heimdall has no obligation to me. Even if he did see fit to collect me, I'd be for the chop immediately. You're my only hope of leaving this realm in safety."

"I won't die. I swear."

He couldn't bear looking at Loki's doubt and retreated to Jane.

Her fear was not much better.

The food sat untouched and she resisted his attempts to make her eat.

"I'll throw up if I try," she said.

She seemed to take as long as possible to ready herself. Thor could feel his own concern threatening to bubble over as he sat in the lab watching Jane shaking up a tube of fresh samples with her own blood and forced his feelings away. He wouldn't be going outside until the afternoon anyway. Jane wanted to monitor him for a few hours after the vaccination.

"Just in case," she said.

The needle stung slightly as she pushed it through his skin.

It didn't feel strange. He'd expected some kind of pain or sensation but there was nothing. Minor swelling of the injection site but that was all.

Jane repeatedly took his temperature, and shone lights in his eyes and performed a dozen other small tests. She was stalling, he could tell. She made him eat lunch before finally deciding he could go up to the roof.

They were all there, faces grave. Thor felt like he was going to his own funeral.

"We'll be back soon," he said, going for cheerfulness but hitting something too bright and forced.

"Be careful," Natasha said.

No one seemed to have anything to add to that, except Jane who pulled him into a desperate kiss, all tear-filled eyes and trembling hands.

Thor wrapped his arm around Loki's waist, noting that he was forgetting to look angry due to his fear, and jumped, swinging Mjölnir with confidence he did not feel as the safety of the building vanished behind them.


	45. Chapter 45

He aimed for a few streets away. Firstly because he felt that getting away from the mass of afflicted might be a good idea and secondly because he didn't want Jane to actually see him get bitten. It was going to be bad enough without scaring her as well.

He spotted an empty, open street and dropped, holding Loki up until the last possible second and depositing him carefully.

They braced and scanned automatically. 

"What now?" Thor asked.

Loki raised a finger to his lips.

They advanced silently back towards the building. The closer they got, the more likely they were to find a biter. Part of Thor also didn't want to be too far from home when they had to hurry back.

The footsteps took him by surprise. One second there was nothing, then suddenly running feet, so close he could barely tell where they were coming from.

He'd worn his day armour, no sleeves, in the hope of being bitten on one of his arms, but the creature lunged at his neck.

It _burned_... The points of teeth sank into his flesh at the crook between his throat and chest, tearing and somehow hot. He was distantly aware of flash of a blade as Loki dispatched the afflicted, even as it attacked.

Thor fell to his knees. It still hurt and he clawed desperately at the wound, his skin warm to the touch and itching and awful.

He heard Loki screaming above him, yelling his name over and over. It was difficult to move his head, his very muscles seemed to be shutting down, everything hurt.

He couldn't tell how long he was down before a stray leg caught him, knocking him back and he saw. He saw everything.

They were surrounded, more and more closing in and Loki was spinning, stabbing and slashing, screaming for help and for Thor indescriminately.

Thor forced himself to his feet and raised Mjölnir, willing the lightning down from above, hoping to buy them some time. The burn raced through him, the burn of electricity that he never felt anymore and he almost collapsed again.

Loki was at his side in an instant, shoving a shoulder under his arm to hold him up.

"Now," he said. "Come on, now. Go, while we can."

"I can't... I can't hold you."

Loki's face fell.

"You can't leave me here," he cried. "Not you."

"You're going to have to hold on to me instead. That's...that's all I meant."

The ring of corpses that now surrounded them was being quickly navigated by the next wave. Loki's grip was like a vice, liable to tear Thor's flesh from his bones if he wasn't careful.

Raising Mjölnir had been difficult, trying to spin her was agony. He groaned, eyes blurring as the afflicted moved closer and Loki panted from exertion and fear.

Thor was almost sure they were going to die when he managed to take off, hands reaching for them even as they took shakily to the air. 

Their legs clipped the edge of the Tower, sending them sprawling in a heap, the other inhabitants running for cover at their approach.

Thor managed to roll onto his back, positively whimpering. His armour felt too tight and his skin was on fire and he couldn't breathe anymore...

Loki was moaning somewhere to his side, as though in pain. He briefly wondered if the impact had broken his brother's shinbones, but then Loki's face loomed above him through the tears.

Strong fingers undid his armour, letting him take great gasps of air at last, but still the burning pain, the utter uselessness of the left side of his body remained.

"What's happening?" he heard Loki demanding. "What has it done to him?"

"I think he's having an allergic reaction," Jane was saying. "The swelling and the heat is similar to histamine production..."

"Speak plainly!"

"His body is fighting the parasite too intensely. It's like... Like a beserker. It's fighting so strongly that it's hurting its allies."

"It burns..." Thor managed. "Hurts, hurts and burns..."

"Pepper, bring me all the antihistamine remedies we have. Thor, hang on, you'll feel much better in just a little while."

"Move!" Loki said.

Thor gasped at the relief. Delicious coldness flowed over his skin. He finally blinked his eyes clear and stared up at the blue face of his little brother. His hand was on Thor's chest, a smooth pebble of ice clutched in it.

"Better?" he asked.

Thor managed a nod and let them push him upwards until Jane managed to press pills between his lips and pour water down his throat.

The burning had been soothed and a short time later the swelling subsided. His muscles still seemed to be unwilling to work properly. He wasn't sure if this was a result of the bite or the parasite or both. But he wasn't infected. That was for sure.

It took until goosebumps were breaking out on Thor's skin until Loki was satisfied that he was no longer in pain. There had been a degree of fear at his sudden shift in appearance from everyone except Clint, who was looking on with undisguised curiousity.

"I wondered how you'd look when you went full smurf," he said. "The eyes are nice."

Loki seemed to be practising ignoring the rest of the universe. Thor was content to look up at him, using his recovery as an excuse to drink his fill of the other form until Loki caught him staring and wordlessly shifted back.

Pepper massaged his shoulder, wearing rubber gloves just in case, until he felt able to stand and head down to the lab. Loki went with him, refusing to let him out of his sight for even a second.

Jane tested his blood again. Made a note of his symptoms on the recorder. She hypothesised that the sudden rush of parasites, all dying quickly, had briefly clogged his veins around the immediate bite zone and had made it difficult for his muscles to get enough oxygen.

"But he'll recover?" Loki asked.

"Of course," Jane said. "If he takes things easy for a few days until the bite and bruises heal, he should be good as new."

"Right. Then if you're all done, I want to take him away and yell at him for a little while."

Jane smiled, holding a sample of Thor's blood up to the light. 

"I think I've put him through enough lab stuff for one day," she said. "Just have him back by dinner."


	46. Chapter 46

Thor was prepared to be thoroughly abused for putting them both in danger.

Loki silently guided him upstairs by the arm and sat him down almost carefully on the bed. It was not at all what he had expected.

"Don't you ever do that to me again," he said quietly, taking off the temporary dressing they'd applied to the wound on the roof and reaching for his own bandage supplies.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know it was going to hurt so badly. I didn't mean to scare you."

"I thought you were going to leave me down there... I thought... Never mind."

He could see exactly what Loki had thought, written plain on his face. He'd doubted for a second. He'd thought Thor meant to leave him there. He'd thought he was going to abandon him again. And even though he knew it had been the fear of a second, Thor was determined to set his mind right.

"I wouldn't," he said. "I would have stayed with you. And we would have gone together and walked the underworld hand in hand."

Loki cut a square of gauze, not meeting Thor's eye for the moment.

"If I... If I had died on Svartalfheim, would you have come for me?" he asked.

"There was a time on Earth afterwards, when I thought for sure that I was doomed. The only consolation I had was that I would soon see you again. Imagine how awful it would have been, had I perished and spent all eternity searching for one who was not there..."

They looked sadly at one another, so many partings spinning off behind them.

"We shouldn't dwell on such things," Loki said when the bandage was fixed in place to his satisfaction. "Are you still hot?"

"No, that seems to have subsided now."

Loki laughed. "No, Thor... Are you hot, brother?"

He shifted his skin, the familiar pale giving way to blue with just the barest hint of nervousness in his eyes.

Thor grinned. "For me?"

"Well, it doesn't matter anymore, does it?" Loki said, trying for dismissive. "You've seen it. They've all seen now."

Thor wrapped both arms around him, pulling him closer.

"There's one important person who still hasn't seen."

"Although I don't doubt that the famous Ms Lewis would enjoy seeing a... a full smurf, whatever that may be, she's hardly a fair limit."

"No, not her..."

He picked Loki up, and carried him to the bathroom.

"Look," he said.

Loki's eyes were firmly closed.

"I'm letting you have this, Thor," he said through gritted teeth. "I have seen my body. I have no wish to look upon myself and see unfamiliar eyes."

Thor moved in front of him, cupping his face.

"I don't see a stranger's eyes," he said softly. "I see my brother. Believe me. If you truly do not want this, I will not force it upon you. I just wanted you to see what I see."

Loki scrunched his face up before opening his eyes. He gasped looking over Thor's shoulder, red eyes going wide.

Thor moved to stand behind him, watching Loki examine his own reflection and started to undo the buckles of his armour.

"I love you," he said firmly. "And I love all parts of you. And I just wish that you could love yourself."

He wasn't entirely convinced that Loki could hear him.

"It's like watching you undress a stranger," he said, breathlessly. "I know that it is me, but I... I can't..."

Thor lent in to kiss his neck, the familiar pulse beneath unfamiliar markings.

"You made ice," he said suddenly, a half-memory stirring from the fog of pain he'd been in.

"Yes. I'm not sure how. It was easy, in the moment. I suppose we should be grateful I didn't misjudge my first attempt and stab you through the heart..."

Thor took the hand that had done it and brought it to his lips. Loki sighed.

"All right, I have looked. Can we return to getting you better now?"

Thor wasn't quite sure how lazing the evening away together counted as getting him better, but he didn't complain. He was content. Loki seemed reluctant to do anything more than touch in this form, but that suited Thor fine.

They excused themselves from dinner.

He left his brother sleeping, his habitual white skin washing back over him as he drifted off and climbed in with Jane. He felt a little odd, but surely nothing a night's sleep wouldn't solve.

Exhaustion took him as she struggled to explain what exactly a smurf was. He didn't understand how they could safely reproduce with only one female and Jane was strangely resistant to his analogies with bees and ants. And he'd thought he was getting the hang of Midgardian fauna.

It was clear upon waking that he was not recovered. His head ached and his eyes hurt. It was strange to be ill. He couldn't remember being so since childhood. Waking with the muscles of his arm still aching was one thing, but the way his head swam was something else.

He could see Jane frowning down at him, could hear Loki speaking with her sharply. He wanted to tell him not to be so blunt, but he found it difficult to form the words. Jane's soft voice made him think that she knew Loki was just worried.

He must have slept, waking with a clear head at last to find them playing some sort of game with carved pieces on the floor next to the bed.

"What are you doing?" he managed to croak.

Jane looked up at him, smiling.

"Feeling better?" she asked. "It's called chess. It's a strategy game."

"We played similar things in our youth," Loki said. "I wouldn't be surprised if this has Asgardian origins. After all, the King has no use at all, and yet must be protected at all costs, the ordinary soldiers are sacrificed without a thought, the cavalry take the most illogical paths and the Queen flits about, trying to handle everything until she inevitably falls."

"You should teach me to play some time," Thor said. "I'm sorry that I was indisposed this morning. You were worried, both of you."

"A little fever," Jane said. "Your body just wanted to make sure it had burned off all the infection. Nothing to worry about. We just had to let you sleep it off."

Thor rolled over to better watch their hands moving back and forth across the board.

"Checkmate," Loki said eventually.

"No," Jane said. "If you take me, you have to move your bishop. And it's the only thing in the way of my rook. Stalemate."

"What does that mean?"

"It means neither of us can win."

Loki paused for a long time, eyes flicking over the pieces.

"Some people would say that we both won," he sniffed. "But they would probably be foolish, oaf-like people."


	47. Chapter 47

Thor was ravenous. He had barely eaten since breakfast before going outside and wolfed down his dinner.

"I was wondering," he said as it came back to mind. "How are we getting food? Bucky and I were talking about it."

Tony suddenly shifted uncomfortably and Thor knew that something was wrong.

"Where is the food coming from, Tony?"

"Uh, well, on me and Pepper's floor, I converted some of the guest rooms to artificial greenhouses. Accelerated vegetable production. Nothing to worry about there."

Natasha frowned down at her plate.

"Where's the rest coming from?" she asked.

"Uh, the rice and pasta is from my own bunker supply. Yes, I have a bunker, you don't make weapons for years and not have a bunker. And most of the rest is tinned."

"Most?"

He coughed. "I have had to make a few substitutions here and there..."

Everyone had put their forks down suspiciously.

"Some of what we've been eating is grown protein. You know like when they grew an ear on the back of a mouse? Well, like that, just artificially grown meat. Steroids and growth hormones are all it really needs."

"What kind of meat?"

He sighed. "Flavoured rat, OK? It's rat protein with added enhancers to make it look and taste like other things. It's totally fine."

"Oh, thank God," Clint said. "I thought you were going to say it was human..."

He began eating again. Everyone else had somewhat lost their appetites.

"How long have times been this desperate?" Steve asked.

"A little while," Tony said. "Three months, tops. Rhodey wanted us to go to Washington right away when I told him. They're farming there, all open land and roofs and everything. But I had to turn him down, for three particular reasons."

"And those reasons were?"

"Well, for a start I thought we could collectively sort this out. Think about who we are. Highly-trained intelligence agents, military personnel, two supersoldiers, two of the sharpest minds in contemporary science, a woman with the organisational skills to single-handedly run a multinational business while also dealing with me for years, and a couple of literal gods. If anyone is going to survive the end of the world, it's us. I didn't want us to...to be defeated."

"Right, fine, but all of that means nothing if we starve to death beforehand. We can survive in Washington."

"Secondly... He said we couldn't take Darcy into the quarantine zone. She's infected, there's no way they're letting her near the population. Even their lab, which is in a quarantined quarantine wouldn't take her. So I said no."

"Well, that's no longer a problem," Thor said. "Jane invented the cure. With a few more tests, we'll be able to wake her."

No one met his hopeful eyes.

"I didn't create a cure," Jane said softly. "I made a preventative treatment. It's too late for Darcy. I read about strokes because that's what it most closely resembled, but I didn't have the right medicine in time. And even when I did, the kind of clots formed aren't affected by any of the drugs I tested. Once they're there, that's it. There doesn't seem to be any way to reverse the damage to her brain."

"So she's..."

Jane looked up at him, eyes brimming with tears.

"Can we do this later?" she whispered. "I'm not ready. I'm not ready to face it..."

Steve deliberately and unsubtly tried to change focus.

"Reason three?" he asked.

Tony finished chewing a piece of carrot and swallowed hard.

"We also wouldn't be allowed to take Loki. He's a hostile force, an enemy of humanity. They wouldn't offer him shelter."

Thor's mouth dropped open and Tony gestured at him.

"See, this is why I said no. We're not going anywhere without our intern or our maniac, end of story."

"Darcy is dead," Jane said suddenly, louder than she had perhaps meant to.

"No, she's not," Pepper said. "Her heart is still beating, she's fine."

"Her body is alive, but her mind and what made her Darcy is gone. And I need to accept that. She is dead and it is my fault."

Thor scooped her up as her tears began to flow, holding her to his chest, not caring for how it made his wound sting slightly.

Pepper was staring at nothing and seemed to be having some difficulty breathing. She had doted on Darcy. Whenever she was worried or scared, her feet carried her down to the cell, book in hand. It had calmed her to be doing some good.

"What should we do?" she said out loud.

"Switch off the machines," Jane said against Thor's shoulder. "She never wanted to be kept like this anyway. It's time we said goodbye. It's time I stopped pretending that I can work miracles."

Loki stood up and left in silence. Thor hesitated for just a second before heading after him, still holding Jane.

"Where are you going?"

Loki sighed. "I have to get a map or similar so I can figure out where I'm heading. You can drop me off on the way. I'll leave this little realm. I'll be fine."

"No. Loki, no, I will not leave you."

"We need to go. Maybe the food holds out a while longer, but sooner or later we run out or the afflicted get in and we will die. I can't go with you so I will leave. Don't look so sad, brother. I always intended to, once it was over."

"Liar."

Loki spun on his heels and marched Thor back against a wall, Jane awkwardly trapped between them.

"I'll be back for you the next time the world ends," he hissed and made to turn away.

Jane shot out a hand and caught his wrist.

He could easily have pulled away, but the surprise of it seemed to have temporarily stunned him.

"No," she said firmly. "You've left too many times. You're staying with us. You, me and him. The others can go to Washington without us."

Loki stared at her. "And what of us? Where will we go? We can't stay here and starve."

"I don't know. Anywhere."

Loki hesitated.

"We could go to Asgard. Thor is the legal ruler. There would be nothing they could do if he brought us back with him."

"You're a criminal," Thor said. "And you're meant to be dead. If I brought you back, I'd have to put you straight back into your cell."

"Or you could insist that I was under your personal care. Keep me in very specific areas of the palace. Besides, with me there to distract them, no one would worry about you bringing a mortal home."

Thor shook his head. "There would be riots in the street."

"Would there? They love you. The mighty Thor, returning to his stricken realm? They'd eat that up and you know it."

"But what of... What of humanity? Are we just to abandon them?"

Jane shifted until he finally put her down.

"I've done all I can," she said. "My research will probably help at least. But I'm not a medic. Not really. And I wouldn't be happy with this if we had a choice. That said, I guess we do. Or you do. It's humanity or Loki."

Thor stared at them both and felt himself losing.


	48. Chapter 48

Jane ran a hand through his hair later as he tried to sleep.

"Just think about it," she said. "We'll be safe. You'll be home. You can have me and Loki and look after Asgard again. The others will sort things out here."

"I swore to protect Midgard," he said. 

"And you tried. But think how much easier it would be from Asgard. Heimdall sees everything. You'd be an extremely valuable ally."

"Why do you want to go? Is this genuine want or do you just think that it's what I want deep down?"

"Is it what you want?"

"I don't know. And I'm going to sleep."

He rolled away from her. It made sense. That was the worst thing. Jane made good points. But he didn't want to leave the others. Then again, if he went to Washington with them and tried to help, he would lose Loki again. He wasn't sure if he could get through it. Not now.

They'd planned to run not so long ago, when there seemed to be no hope. Now that there was a vaccination on the horizon, he was less enthusiastic.

He woke, aware of soft voices. He kept his eyes closed, feigning sleep.

"He won't come," Jane was saying.

"He will. Trust me. Let me talk to him."

Thor curled in on himself. He could resist Jane and he could resist Loki, but he wouldn't be able to withstand both of them for long.

"What will I need to bring with me?" Jane asked.

"Anything you want, as long as you can carry it. And when the plague is over, we can come back and collect other things. But I'm sure there will be enough there to occupy you in the meantime."

Thor rolled towards them, feeling slightly righteous at the sight of their guilty faces.

"What are we going to tell the others?" he asked. "Since you've already decided on this."

"The truth," Jane said. "That they should go to Washington and we'll go to Asgard."

"But not where we think the plague came from? Not that we think attack might be imminent?"

"Suspicion is no reason to worry them," Loki said. "From Asgard you will be better able to investigate further, consult other races. Don't you think Asgard has been internally focussed a little too long, brother? Never interfering and yet interfering always in the worst ways. You will create a new age of altruism. We'll help you."

He was slipping. He would be king, with Loki whispering in one ear and Jane in the other. Natasha had once tried to explain an image to him from a film of an angel and a devil upon a man's shoulders. It bubbled up in his memory.

Had Loki been right that this disease was created? Perhaps not. Perhaps it was natural after all. Perhaps his desperation to leave after the incident with the children had made him craft a lie even he believed. Thor couldn't even tell any more. In Asgard, he would be able to consult the healers, the scholars, he would be able to find out for sure.

And if it were a lie, Loki would deny everything and say that he had truly believed it. Thor was his ticket back to life, literally. Who was going to question the returning king about how he'd managed to bring back the dead?

"Can you... Can you both just leave me alone for a while? I need to think seriously."

Jane turned to leave, but Loki approached him, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"It's for the best, Thor," he said. "You know it is."

"I don't know. I never know anymore."

Jane cleared her throat.

"I'm, er... I'm going to go through Darcy's things today," she said. "I want to take something of hers when... if we go to Asgard. So if you need me, that's where I'll be."

She left them. Thor groaned inwardly. Here came the second part of the double attack.

"She wants to go," Loki said quietly. "This place is full of sadness and death for her. She's a lady of the stars. Let her live among them."

Thor closed his eyes. "Asgard is not home for her."

"Where's home for you now? Here?"

"Home is wherever the people I love are."

"And you don't think she feels as strongly as you? You doubt her love?"

Thor growled and turned away. "You twist my words."

Loki lay down behind him and sighed against his ear placing a soft hand on his shoulder.

"You can marry Jane. Have her live with you as queen of Asgard, beloved by all. Put a bed in the private sitting room for me. And we will live and love there, you, me, Jane, and we'll take care of all the realms. Doesn't that sound good? Wouldn't you like that?"

His hand began to run up and down Thor's side on the outside of the blankets.

The first time it dipped beneath the covers, seeking bare skin, Thor shook him off and got up.

"I'm going to assist Jane," he said. "She'll be upset at going through Darcy's belongings. She needs the support."

Loki leapt up and bracketed him against the wall.

"You're right," he said. "She does need support. She needs hope. She needs to get away from all of this."

"Don't pretend this is out of some new-found love for Jane. You would sell her soul to save yourself. Why do you want to get back to Asgard so much anyway?"

Loki's eyes bore into his. "Better to be a fallen prince than a defeated foe. And will be safer. We're just waiting for death to catch up with us down here."

There wasn't much he could say to that. As if Loki sensed his weakness, he aligned their bodies and lowered his voice.

"Agree to leave with us, and I'll change for you. I'll let you love me in that skin."

Thor was suddenly angry and shoved Loki away.

"Don't talk to me as though I wish to buy your affection. You're not my whore to haggle over price. I will decide on this and should I decide to go, I will expect no boon in return."

Loki laughed softly.

"One of these days, you'll come to regret that noble streak. Turning down what's offered to you on a platter..."

Thor left the room.


	49. Chapter 49

Jane was sitting in a heap in Darcy's room. She'd stayed on the floor above them, alongside Clint and Natasha's rooms. Didn't want to hear Jane and Thor 'canoodling' through the wall, she'd said.

Thor sat down behind her, laying his hands on her shoulders.

"I haven't... None of us have touched this room since she... Yeah. Except Pepper, getting books for her."

To say Darcy had been a disorganised person didn't quite cut it. Jane had begun to make little piles by theme. Books, clothes, keepsakes. There was another, far smaller pile. A framed picture of Darcy's graduition. A pendant. A stuffed bear.

"That's my possibility pile," Jane said. "The stuff of hers that I might take. To remember her by. Not that I'm going to forget her. No chance of that."

Her eyes seemed strangely distant. 

"I'm going to...talk with the others tonight. About how they should go to Washington. And... I really think we should head to Asgard. I don't know why you're so opposed to it."

Thor sighed. "I'm just worried that we're running away from our problems. That we're... I don't know. Abandoning Earth in its time of need."

She looked round at him properly. "We've lost a good friend. I've done everything I can. We've done a lot, Thor, and I know that because we haven't won outright, you think it's not enough. But we haven't lost either. It's alright to quit while we're ahead. Or at least not behind. And we can help from Asgard."

He would give in, and he knew it. They would talk him round.

"You know Loki will try to take over again when we're there?" he said, effectively thinking aloud.

She smiled wryly. "Why would he need to when he has the King by the heartstrings? All the power, none of the responsibility."

That was true. With Thor's ear, Loki could potentially get anything he wanted.

"If I say yes," Thor hypothesised. "And we go, will you be happy?"

"I can't promise that."

"I don't want promises, Jane, I want... Confirmation. Affirmation. That you're not just doing this because you think I'll be heartbroken without Loki."

"I know you will be."

"But I can't ask you to give up your home and your friends for me. It's not fair."

She grabbed both his hands. 

"Thor... The world has ended. I have no family left, no lab, no university to go back to... No Darcy. Sure, we live with friends, but it's not like we'll never see them ever again. The King can visit other realms. And I will be happy with you, happy and safe."

"I can't ask you to give up your research."

"Grant me the right to research on Asgard. Your science is far more advanced than ours anyway. I'll be able to learn so much."

She had an answer for everything. 

He nodded vaguely.

"Very well. If you swear this is because you truly think it best, I will take you and Loki to Asgard."

She kissed him softly. "I do think it best. We will be away from the plague. Humanity will bounce back, as it has before. And we can watch."

The others pretended to be surprised to hear their plan, but Thor could tell they had expected this.

"We will miss you," Pepper said, her sincerity almost painful.

"So, you'll be king of Asgard then?" Tony said.

"It would seem so," Thor replied, trying to cover his continued anxiety by taking a large mouthful of vegetable stir-fry. Meat had mysteriously vanished from the menu.

"That's so cool. But you'll come visit?"

"Of course," Jane said. "Of course we will."

There were more points to decide upon. A leaving timetable. A funeral, of sorts, for Darcy. They couldn't burn her or bury her, but Tony insisted that he would get her a coffin. And then the others would fly to Washington in helicopters sent by Rhodey and Thor would call on Heimdall. There would be no sense in delay.

"What if Heimdall does not open the Bifrost?" Thor said to Loki, sitting on his left.

"Of course he will. No doubt he has heard what we plan and begun make ready. He will not let you down. His fealty is sworn to you. And all of Asgard loves you and will be joyful on your return."

He placed a hand softly on Thor's thigh and leant around him.

"Jane, my queen," he said, smiling playfully. "Might I beg your indulgence?"

"You might," she said.

"Thank you."

The exchange was brief but Thor understood. He was Loki's this night, and always, the same as he was Jane's and both of them his own.

Bucky winked at him across the table. Thor had begun to wonder what all he knew either from Natasha or his own observance. Then again, he had seen many things, from what Thor had learned. Perhaps he had run out of surprise to offer to such proceedings.

"We should go soon," Steve said. "Can you imagine Washington? We'll be able to actually do things. Help people. We can take Jane's research with us... It'll be good for us."

"Yeah," Clint said. "Fresh air that doesn't smell of death. Not rat meat. Other people... When can we go?"

"I think we should give Rhodey at least a week," Tony said. "To get beds and the like ready. And that should give us time to prepare."

It was fast. It was too fast. Thor's head was in a whirl of the responsibility he would soon have. The friends that soon he would leave behind. It weighed heavily upon him, even as around him the others thought of relative freedom in Washington, as Pepper asked Jane about her previous visit to Asgard and as Loki wrapped an arm around him to lean closer.

"I know you're worried, brother," he said softly. "It's clear on your face. It doesn't suit you. Finish up and come with me. I'm sure I can cheer you up a little."


	50. Chapter 50

Thor was in no mood to be cheered, but still followed Loki to his bed and allowed his kisses.

"We haven't since the lightning," Loki said.

It seemed a lifetime ago. Jane had taken ill the next morning and since then too many things had gotten in the way.

"I never thought I'd long for Asgard," he continued. "But I'm feeling sentimental for our old beds. Our old rooms."

"Soon we will be there. Be happy."

"Oh, I am. And soon you will be too, for I have not forgotten my promise."

He had undone Thor's clothes and began on his own, gesturing for Thor to undress completely.

Loki lay down and tugged at his shoulder, pulling them down, flesh to flesh, until Thor was wrapped in his legs and held fast. 

There was a heartbeat's pause and Loki shifted, the ridges of his skin arising from nowhere.

"You can have me now," Loki said. "As agreed."

Thor tried to extract himself from Loki's grip.

"Please, don't," he said, ignoring the pout this provoked.

"What? You don't want me now? You don't find me desirable?"

Thor groaned and pressed their foreheads together.

"Of course I do, but not like this. Not like you're rewarding me for doing what you wanted. I feel as though I am...dishonouring and coercing you."

"You aren't," Loki said. "I want this."

Thor shook his head helplessly. He couldn't do this, no matter how he had dreamed of it.

"Instead then, what if I were to take you? Would that convince you that I am doing this out of love?"

I certainly felt better to Thor. Like Loki would have more control over the situation. He locked their lips together in answer and rolled until Loki straddled him, red eyes shining with anticipation.

His fingers were not unpleasantly cold, nor was his cock. It was as though he had just that moment come in from cool air. His touch was like the chill of a stream on a summer day. Thor shivered as Loki entered him, in lust and sensation equally. He hadn't quite made the connection that the ridges would be present on all parts of his anatomy.

"Comfortable?" Loki asked, voice breathy, starting to move. "Beneath the beast?"

Thor arched up into his thrusts as they became more confident.

"You are no beast," he said. "You are a serpent perhaps but not a beast."

Loki traced his fingers over the scar from the bite on Thor's chest.

"I shall not nip you then. I think you've have quite enough venom of late. But I warn you that neither beasts nor serpents are gentle."

Thor's ankles locked around Loki's waist. He could not banter now. He wanted to concentrate on the feelings rushing through him. Loki was not being gentle, far from it. He pounded into Thor, drawing helpless moans from them both, barely covering the sound of skin slapping on skin. The touch of Loki's lips against his own, the stuttering of his hips, the excitement at realising that he would see Loki come like this, his twin vulnerabilities combined, all of it was delicious to Thor. He almost forgot his own pressing need, clenching and grinding and trying everything he could to tip Loki over.

Thor screamed when it happened. Loki was suddenly cold, properly cold, his hands leaving red marks on Thor's skin.

They stared at each other for a moment. Loki looked terrified and Thor grasped hopelessly at something to say to break the tension.

"Well, I'm glad you hadn't decided to help me along..."

He'd judged it right. Loki's fear vanished and he slithered down the bed, moving his head from side to side and flicking his tongue against Thor's flesh.

"Do you know some serpents of Midgard can dislocate their jaws to swallow large prey?" he asked. "I'm not quite that talented, but I'm sure you won't notice."

Thor was almost embarrassed at how quickly he came with Loki's throat closing around his length and two fingers twisting inside him. He kissed his own essence from Loki's lips.

The eyes were the strangest thing to watch change. The red slid from them like melting snow.

The hand prints remained on Thor's skin and Loki ran his fingertips over them.

"I hurt you," he said quietly.

"It's nothing. I'll heal. And worth it for the sight of you lost in pleasure. Besides, you didn't mean to. It was like when we were young and had no stamina to speak of and would climax all of a sudden to the shock of both of us. You didn't know it would happen."

"Speaking of climaxes, was mine cold?"

Thor squirmed. He had felt it, but hadn't recalled until now that they weren't supposed to do that anymore.

"It was entirely normal climax temperature," he said. "But shame on us for forgetting the contract."

Loki laughed.

"Jane and I dissolved the contract when you were sick," he said. "Since her experiments on me ended it hasn't been relevant. We have a verbal agreement now."

"And what does it say?"

"Don't do anything to Thor that he doesn't want. Don't try to achieve exclusive access. Unite against Thor when necessary. Condoms are encouraged but not mandatory since we're all uninfected. And just be polite. That's it."

"There was a worrying one in the middle there, brother."

He hadn't meant it as a jest, but Loki seemed to take it that way. Maybe it was the price he had to pay for taking such clever lovers.

Jane stared at the marks on him when he slipped into bed next to her.

"Those are very impressive. How hard can he hit?"

"They aren't strikes. It's frost burn. An accident."

She stared at him for a moment and then burst out laughing.

"Sorry," she said. "Sorry, sorry. It's just the thought of you being right on the edge and then basically getting an ice cube down your shirt."

She seemed happy. Thor was almost surprised. Then he listened to the continued slams of the afflicted against the lower floor windows. He'd almost stopped hearing them, they were so constant. She would be happy to leave them.

"Will they accept me on Asgard?" she asked suddenly as he'd been about to drift off to sleep.

"They will have to."

"But I can't... I can't have children. I can't continue the royal line."

It stung him to hear her concerns, but he was glad she didn't bottle them up.

"I won't be thinking of children for some time. Besides, maybe I will choose my heir from among the people I trust."

"Maybe you can introduce democracy."

"Maybe I can. Times have changed. It's about time the Realm Eternal changed with them."


	51. Chapter 51

A week passes quickly when you're leaving. The whole building seemed to be a mass of activity and purpose.

Things were packed. Dismantled. Organised. It helped for everyone to pretend this was temporary. They would be back. Thor held no such ideas. When he was back in Asgard, that would be it, apart from fleeting visits.

He didn't have many things. Really all he possessed of any major bulk was clothing, and he could leave all that behind. He wanted to keep some objects to remind him of his time here. Photographs and keepsakes. A drawing of Mjölnir with Steve's signature on it. A spent Widow's Bite that Natasha had let him examine, seeing as it was basically lightning weaponry. Coasters and leaflets from places he'd visited. A knotted bracelet that Darcy had made for him that didn't fit his wrist.

His bag was empty enough that when Loki pressed a small pile of books into his hands he included them. They were stolen, but at least Loki would make use of them. Better to be used on Asgard than left to rot and be forgotten here.

Jane must have packed and unpacked and repacked at least five times. She didn't need clothes and any scientific equipment she wanted could be bespokely made for her, and there was no sense in taking any of her electrical devices, useless as they would be on Asgard.

She mostly took books, novels mainly and one or two that she had contributed to, her name on the spine. Her life's work, really, or the physical evidence of it. She took a locket of Darcy's which had a picture of a couple Thor assumed must be her parents inside it. He'd never asked about Darcy's family. He felt vaguely guilty about that on the day of her funeral.

Tony had repurposed one of the tubes that had formerly held his suits as a coffin. It was entirely transparent.

"Like Snow White," she said, voice just slightly too strained. "And it'll fill automatically with gas-based preservative so she won't... She'll still be here when we come back to bury her properly."

Jane had made up a solution in the lab, chemicals that Thor didn't recognise, but that Jane said would ease her into a painless sleep. She insisted on doing it herself, even as tears streamed silently down her face.

They stood in solumn silence, waiting as the beeping of the heart monitor slowed and stilled completely.

No one moved for a moment. Thor already had his arm round Jane, letting her cry into his side.

Then Pepper started to talk.

"Darcy was a sweet girl, and a good friend. And we will miss her. She kept us grounded."

"She was fun," Natasha said. "And she would have learned to fight really well."

"She had great taste in music," Clint mumbled. "But her film recommendations were awful."

Thor thought he ought to say something, but nothing seemed enough.

"She was the first person to successfully teach me humility," he managed. "When I fell facing her tazer."

That got a chuckle from Jane even through her tears and wry smiles from some of the others.

Tony took the extended silence as his cue and he, Steve and Clint unclipped the monitors and laid her in the makeshift coffin. Clint reverently placed her iPod at her side.

Jane suddenly clutched desperately at Thor's arm.

"We can't leave her here," she choked out. "I don't want to leave her in a lab."

Thor could probably have managed the coffin alone, had it not been such an awkward shape. Between them, they managed to manoeuvre it up the stairs and place Darcy on her own bed, surrounded by her own things.

As he closed the door, getting the last look at her, Thor couldn't quite shake the hope that she would open her eyes and laugh and be safe again. She looked so peaceful.

He shut the door firmly and went to help Jane.

She had collated her notes in date order and made copies and backup copies of the recordings. She had a rack of test tubes containing several samples of her own blood and some of Thor's, from which, she said, actual medical scientists could make a suitable vaccine and save the world, properly.

All of it had to be labelled and documented and sorted out before it could be given to Rhodey and they were exhausted by the time they were summoned to dinner.

Tony had outdone himself, wanting to use up as much of the remaining pasta and tinned foods as possible. There were at least three different kinds of bean and all manner of blended spices.

They ate as though they wouldn't be able to the next day. Thor hadn't seen appetites like it since he had last gone into battle. It was a fitting last night to their time together. Happy and sad and joyful and regretful all at once.

He was the good kind of tired when they went to bed. There didn't seem much point in delay. The helicopters would arrive at about 11. After they had taken off, Thor would call to Heimdall. Assuming Asgard still stood, he would be answered. 

Jane sighed softly against him. Her hair was beginning to grow back and Thor ran a hand over it unconsciously. The shortness made it almost tingle.

"We should have sex tomorrow morning," she said sleepily.

It was so out of nowhere that he laughed. She batted him in the side.

"This might be my last chance on Earth," she said. "Or Midgard. I should call it Midgard now. And we haven't since I was sick but I feel much better."

He kissed her forehead. "All right. But I'm sure when the plague is over I can bring you back and we can couple anywhere you want."

"I'll start making a list," she whispered.

It felt good to fall asleep to the sound of her breathing after such a sad day.


	52. Chapter 52

He woke Jane with a kiss. She gazed at him through drooping eyes before sitting up excitedly.

"We leave today," she said breathlessly.

"We do."

She practically leapt on him. He welcomed her passion, enjoying how enthusiastic she was. He wanted to be careful and gentle, still aware of how delicate her skin was, but she took charge, tearing off his clothes and setting a fast pace, her breath coming in desperate gasps and moans.

He assumed she knew what she wanted and they collapsed together a little later, sated and panting.

She went to shower as Thor went in search of breakfast.

He found Loki staring into the base of a coffee mug.

"I will miss this drink," he said. "A shame we don't have it in Asgard. I was going to wake you, but you sounded busy."

Thor blushed slightly and Loki laughed at him.

"How fortunate that the royal rooms have such thick walls," he said. "We can all let loose there."

"Oh, because you've been holding back so."

"Maybe you'll get to find out."

They were interupted by Pepper, list in hand.

"What's the plan in Washington, then?" Thor asked.

"Well, we'll see. But I'm sure we'll find things to do. It's a shame you can't come with us, the three of you. But I suppose... We'll see you soon."

"Of course," Thor said. "Of course, you will. We will visit often, as long as that is permitted in the quarantine zone."

He was lying. We wasn't sure they would be able to visit very often. His duty was to Asgard first, not Earth. 

Altogether, it was a painful parting. They'd gone through so much together. Three helicopters arrived to take away the others, hovering in place and drowning speech. Thor felt as though he might never see them again and embraced everyone heartily, with the exception of Bucky who extended his flesh hand instead before Thor could hug him.

He was gratified when Sam shook hands with Loki, much to the latter's visible surprise. Everyone wished Jane the longest goodbye though. After all, she was the one leaving her very realm.

He waved until the machines floated out of sight and turned to his lovers. They each extended a hand for him to grasp.

The moans of the afflicted echoed around them as he turned his face upwards and called out across the realms.

It was always strange to travel in tandem, but he was afraid of leaving either of them behind accidentally. This way there was no chance of that. Thor looked into Heimdall's disapproving face, somehow managing to contain the judgement of millenia in his eyes even as he greeted them.

"My Lord," he said icily. "Welcome home. Of course, I have been expecting you but the council will be most pleased to know of your return. Times have been difficult, since the All-Father passed."

Thor half stumbled. His father dead? Not merely in his sleep?

He bowed. "Heimdall, my friend, I will meet with them in due time."

"Escort your...companions to your chambers and please attend immediately. As I say, these are difficult times."

He hurried along corridors, speaking under his breath.

"You said he slept, Loki."

"He did. I left him sleeping. He must have died in between times."

He kissed Jane softly when he left them in his old bedroom. A guard was automatically placed on the door. Thor wasn't sure if the purpose was to monitor or imprison.

The council seemed amazed to see him. He spent the whole day explaining the plague on Midgard, why he hadn't returned until now, carefully avoiding the issue of Loki until he had to.

"He sought me out from his hiding place," he said, knowing he was lying, knowing that he didn't care. "Loki has agreed to be confined in my chambers. I will take care of him. The prison failed to hold him once. I am confident that I will be more successful."

He was met with a number of distrustful looks.

"And the mortal? What of her? Do you intend to make her queen?"

Thor sighed. "My friends... Asgard has looked inwards too long. We should take interest in what happens beyond our borders before it threatens to destroy us. As part of this, the Midgardian Jane Foster will live with us. Perhaps I will marry her, but that is something we need to discuss in private. I trust you will have faith in my decision."

They were reluctant. He could see that. But he couldn't let that stop him. He was King and All-Father now. His rule was law.

He stumbled, exhausted, back to his rooms. It was strange to be back in such familiar settings. All his things from his adolescence were still here, as though he'd never left.

"Well?" Loki asked as soon as he opened the door.

"No one is happy," he replied. "Unsurprisingly. But tomorrow they will install us in the King's chambers. You will live there too, they will put a bed in the sitting room. I didn't tell them that it was your suggestion.

He flopped on his bed. Midgard seemed far away already. He wished there was a way to tell their friends that they had arrived safely. Tomorrow he would ask Heimdall to check on them.

A servant brought them food. Thor could make his triumphant return to the feast hall tomorrow with Jane at his side. Loki would just have to get used to eating alone. Better than the dungeon though.

"So," Loki said as night began to draw in. "I'll sleep on the chaise for tonight."

"No," Jane said. "No, for one night just sleep on the bed with us. It's big enough."

They were all hesitant as they changed into unfamiliar sleeping clothes and slipped into bed together.

Jane snuggled into Thor's side, reaching an arm across him. He felt his heart beating too loud in his chest as she grasped Loki's wrist and pulled him closer.

He fell asleep with both their arms around him.

The future was uncertain, but for now he had Jane, he had Loki and they were all alive.

That's all that mattered.


	53. Epilogue

King Thor woke with a start.

He'd almost thought... He thought he'd heard the banging for the first time in years.

He shook his head to clear it. They were gone, they were dead. The humans had made a vaccine from Jane's blood and vanquished them long ago. And then that hadn't mattered anymore.

There were no more afflicted.

He'd never found out if the disease was artificially created. He'd not made it close enough to Thanos to ask once the Titan had taken what he wanted. And it didn't matter anymore.

He should have warned them when he had the chance. Even the vaguest suspicion might have given them enough time to prepare.

He should have fought and died alongside them.

He should have done a lot of things.

At least they had survived, some of them. Humans were resiliant like that. Not even fire was enough to wipe them from the realms. Clint's daughter dropped by to visit him sometimes, on her way through.

He heard another bang, definitely not a dream and went to investigate.

Loki.

They hadn't seen each other in a while. He'd fled Asgard years ago, after the conflict on Earth, spitting rage and raining destruction on anyone who got in his way. But he still came back from time to time. When he missed his brother.

Like now, evidently.

He fell on Thor as soon as he was admitted entry, kissing and sucking on his neck.

They ended up on what had been Loki's bed, panting and moaning together. Thor found himself shoved down, pinned in place as Loki tore at his clothes, wild eyed.

Loki rode him like his life depended on it, not saying a word, but keening and groaning all the while, leaving scratches and bruises on his brother's skin.

Thor couldn't help but enjoy himself. A warm body against him was something he missed now, even if the warm body in question was full of lies.

He curled in against his brother afterwards, hoping that he'd stay.

"So," Loki said, accepting his embrace without complaint for once. "How's the queen? I hear she doesn't get out so much anymore."

Thor shuddered. Loki didn't know what he said, didn't mean anything by it, but Thor felt the prickle of tears anyway.

Loki's eyes flicked over his face.

"When?" he asked.

"Three months ago."

"Thor, I'm so sorry. I know you loved her. And she was a highly respected queen throughout the realms. Her wisdom will be missed."

Thor's voice was steady, even as his tears rolled.

"She was human," he said. "They do not live as long as we do. And she was safe and comfortable in the end."

"That's good. I did like her. She was kind to me, more than I deserved."

Thor tried to forget how he had had to watch her hair turn grey and her face become lined. How ill she had been in recent years. He'd treasured every day, even as it had pained him.

"Will you stay with me tonight?" he asked, desperate not to sleep alone.

Loki twisted sideways to kiss him.

"One night," he whispered. "But one of us has to avenge and it is me at present. They'll pay for what they did to Midgard. Because Midgard was mine and because you loved it and because if it was going to fall it deserved to fall with dignity. And now I shall fight all the more, for Jane."

He held Thor close as he wept.

The future was unwritten and the past a little too recent.

But Loki's arms were constant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for coming on this journey. I have truly appreciated each and every comment and kudos.
> 
> To give you an idea of how far this ran away from my original idea, here are some things that at one time or another were going to happen in this...
> 
> \- Tony was murdered by anti-science zealots  
> \- Jane died during her research  
> \- Darcy was eventually cured  
> \- Unrequited love from Darcy to Jane  
> \- Air strikes on New York  
> \- There was vague past Loki/Sigyn at one point  
> \- Loki sacrificing himself for Earth  
> \- Lots more Thor angst, unbelievably. I put him through enough, right?
> 
> Anyway, thank you. I hope you enjoyed reading it.


End file.
